Rollapaluza (+ Grupetto + Willesden CC) Clubrun

Ved's pic of Kent's

(c) 2009 Ved

Martin, Clive, Vedran, Scarlett, Desi, Ricky, Tom and Ant (ride leader) and myself (a mix of Rollapaluza CC, Willesden CC and Grupetto riders) covered a nice 65k roll around the Kent countryside today, plus another 85k for me getting from Ealing to Smithfield Market and on to Orpington (and back).

Not so nice was someone’s foolhardy decision to climb Yorks Hill, sight of the famous Catford CC hill climb. Scarlett (a seasoned hill-climber) and myself (a seasoned lard arse) both made it to the top clean. Scarlett in something like 2:30 and me in 3:something. Luckily the rest of the ride was much more leg friendly with some pleasant climbs (“Mountains” in Kent, oh how we laughed) and fun descents.

Thanks to everyone for making the ride good fun and Ant for routing us (d’ya see what I did there?) 🙂

Ant’s Route

2009-03-22 West London Combine 25 TT (WLC 25) HCC113

20090322 wlc 25 hippy (c) ron purdy

After forgetting about the ToF dinner I had no hangover to use for an excuse as I fought the headwind out to the West London Combine 40k/25mi time trial start.

Brian pinned on my number and I left my bits and bobs under a motorway overpass on the A413 (Amersham Road) before heading off to warm up and stretch a bit. Saw Richard Jerome who had previously told me that a 1:05 on this course would mean a sub-hour time on the fast ski-slope course. So, with no other target in mind, I was aiming for 1:05.

Rolled down to the Old Amersham Road for my start. I’d watched a “serious” TTer grunt and scream as he left. I would not be doing that.. at least.. not yet. I think I was the second last rider off, at 8:38.

This was only the second ride on the S-Works for over 6 months which also meant I’d not used road pedals for the same length of time. I had massive clip in fail at the start but heard the magic click just as the starter got to “1.. go!”. Phew. Big gear down the steep little ramp of a road, along the slip lane and then merging onto the main A413. My HR was not showing (that’s two flat batteries in my PT straps) so I was going to have to work off power alone. I knew I was going out too hard and mentally forced myself to slow down (400W to 300W).

There was a strong headwind on the way out. I’d read that on an out and back course, there’s no point saving yourself for the tailwind return since you can’t make up the time you lose on the way out. So, my aim was to hold around 300W for the way out (my 1hr TT wattage from last year) and then smash it on the return with whatever I had left.

On the bumpy course I found myself stuck behind a big digger. It took up the whole lane and it was going fast enough to make passing tricky but slow enough that I was coasting behind it down the hill, wasting time. Eventually we both came to a stop at a red light. A what?! Yes, the course had some road works going on so there was a portable traffic light setup. Bye bye 20-30 seconds. The digger turned right and I had a clear road.

I saw a Willesden CC jersey marshaling the roundabout and slowed down (wanting to see who it was while not getting into any issues with a club mate watching :)). It was John W.

Accelerating out of the roundabout I was somewhat shocked to see BringMeMyFix yelling encouragement at me. He’d ridden from London EC2 (ie. way too far to watch a TT). I couldn’t do much except grin (or grimace or something?) and was pretty chuffed that I had a supporter out there so I of course increased my power output.

It was hard work going into the wind. Even at 300W I was only traveling at 25-30kph at places, which to be fair is pretty rubbish. Maybe there was some gradient involved too? I passed a few of our guys along here. At one of the roundabouts had another slow down. I see car coming ’round and slow, but then he sees me and slows down too. Doh! If he’d have continued on without looking he would’ve been gone but now we’ve both come to a stop! Off I go, losing 10-20 seconds. I see Richard Jerome on his way back and yell “Go Ritch!” at him.

A while later I hit the turnaround. I think there were some more Willesden people on roundabouts here because I’m sure I heard a “go Birnie” from someone. Thanks 🙂

The speed on the way back was much better. It was so much nicer with the tailwind. I love riding fast and I love riding fast with less effort even more! I’m sure there’s also a psychological benefit to knowing you are “on the way home”.

I went passed BMMF and again he was yelling out encouragement which did well to bump my mood and speed.

Unfortunately the road works red light was in full effect again on the way home. I’d slowed down before it, hoping it might go green before I arrived at it but no such luck. I was looking both sides for options but there was oncoming traffic in the ‘other lane’ and a 4×4 filling up the road so I couldn’t get by. ARRGH! I had to unclip and wait. What a complete &%$&!

Apart from stopping your forward progress it also messes with your rhythm and forces you to accelerate when you restart. In my case it also made me think I’d broken a pedal when I tried clipping in again (trackstanding isn’t an option when you’ve been at limit for the last 50min). So, I’d clipped in but it didn’t feel right. I unclipped and pulled my shoe back, clipped in with a satisfying “click” and was angry and good to go. There’s a good 20-30 seconds lost again. Grrr..

Up up up! I could see a sign down the road and guessed it must be the finish line. I was going to sprint for it but decided I might collapse so opted for the seated “sprint” finish.

1:03:14 Result! 2 minutes faster than my goal time (and Rich’s time :)).

I missed 5th place (out of 50 starters) by 7 seconds. Fastest time was 57:36. I bet they weren’t riding on the drops though 😉

Thanks to the helpful/cheerful starters and thanks to the guys and gals from Willesden CC for marshaling the course. No wrong turns for me! 🙂

Big thanks to Scarlett for randomly showing up and cheering (and the coffee). You probably saved me a minute with the extra motivation.

bikely.com – HCC113 Course

West London Combine (WLC) 40k / 25 mile TT results – 22nd March 2009

Update

I’m just looking at my power data and shaking my head..

Normalised Power: 355W

Average Power: 342W

That’s a LOAD more than last year! Last year’s only 25 on a faster course in May..

Normalised Power: 318W

Average Power: 306W

I checked and other than the large increase it doesn’t look like a calibration failure. Guess I’ll have to do another 25 for verification now.

http://willesdencc.blogspot.com/2009/03/time-trial-round-up.html

Burgess Hill Spring Classic

It was a lovely day. Lovely course. Challenging climbs and fun, safe descents. But something was “off”. I didn’t feel the love for much of the day.

I also sprayed myself in my own blood after hitting a pot hole, throwing a chain and then refitting it with some kind of new-fangled thumb slicing method I’d not previously used.

Muchos Gracias to cliveo for driving me there and back. Sunlight, tan, consider yourselves repped!

Silver in 4:23.

claus left me behind early on and got a gold time. Well done!

Cyclosport.org rate Surrey Rumble difficulty as 7 and Burgess Hill Classic as a 6!! I call rubbish!

Burgess Hill Spring Classic (114k)

274W normalized power (does a better job of accounting for power spikes)

212W avg power

148 avg HR

3249kJ

474.7 TSS (training stress score)

Surrey Rumble (125k)

249W normalized power

205W avg

143 avg HR

3147kJ

389.2 TSS

Welcome back to London

Registration: BK08 JRO

Vehicle Make/Model: Grey NISSAN QASHQAI 1.6 (07ON) ACENTA 2WD

Caucasian female dark hair driver.

Last night at Shepherds Bush I wanted to move from far left lane to far right. There’s about 4 lanes. This car in front had the left indicator on so I was waiting for it to move before deciding when to change lanes myself. For some reason the car was moving right though, while the left indicator flashed. I rode up alongside the car and noticed the woman driver talking on the phone AND writing stuff down on a notepad she was resting on the steering wheel!! No wonder the silly bint was veering across the road!

I moved over to the far right lane as planned and she was in the next one over now. As I rode alongside her (driver’s side this time) I noticed she was still writing and not looking where she was going! I tapped on her window and pointed to her notepad (moving swiftly out of the idiot’s way). She wound the window down to swear at me. I commented on how stupid she was driving a tonne and a half of steel whilst writing! She swerved her car at me and continued swearing. I yelled “I’ve got your plates” and pointed to her number plates. She drove off (only to be stopped at the lights 100m away, where I probably yelled some insults at her before I continued on my way home. This woman is a danger to anyone on the road and should not be allowed to drive.

car mirror broken

This happened Monday evening. On Monday morning (Uxbridge Rd, Ealing) I was hit by a car that turned across my path without looking or indicating. I swerved but ran out of room and connected with the woman’s car, knocking her mirror clean off!! Comedy! I was yelling at her and she jumped out of the car apologising. I berated her for not using her mirrors and then realised what I’d said. “Well, you don’t use them so I removed it for you!”. I checked over my bike and arm and was okay and she was very apologetic. I lectured her about using mirrors (I was laughing to myself by this stage) and the bike lane that indicates cyclists are around and went on my way. My arm’s a bit stiff and sore today but good enough to punch through the skull of the next idiot that tries to kill me.

Barcelona

hippy 30 barcelona

A very close friend of mine turned 30 last weekend. Since he doesn’t really like birthday parties yet still wanted to do something to celebrate, he went to Barcelona with Malwina.

It was bloody fantastic.

The weather was only 10-15 degrees warmer than London but the sun was out for all 3 days and I’ve come back with a tan, sunburn even! We spent time sun-baking on the beach, eating Spanish food, drinking lots of cerveza and whisky con coca cola, wandering the town checking out Gaudi’s gaudy architecture and other random stuff. It’s amazing what some sun and a scenery change will do! Thanks Mal!

Feel like murder? Just use a car..

www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk – drink driver who killed cyclist has term cut

A drink-driver who mowed down and killed a cyclist after an all-day Bank Holiday pub session had his sentence slashed by judges.

David Mark Chandler, 41, had spent most of the day drinking when he got behind the wheel of his Astra van. His drinking partner, Jonathan McDonald, was in the passenger seat as they headed off on the A658 Bradford to Harrogate road outside Pool.

At one point Mr McDonald was seen to ?reach across and push? Chandler as he drove, forcing the car to swerve across the road, London?s Appeal Court heard.

Stephen Granger, 50, was struck down by Chandler?s van on the A658, hitting the bonnet and windscreen.

Mr Granger was carried along by the van for a short time before Chandler sped on, oblivious to the dead man. The cyclist?s body was discovered later ?lying where he had been thrown?.

Mr Justice Mackay ? sitting with Mr Justice Aikens and Mr Justice Stadlen ? said Chandler and Mr McDonald began their drinking session at lunchtime on April 8 2007, knocking back wine and five pints of beer with their lunch.

Later they moved on to another pub where they spent ?four hours drinking?, each downing at least six pints of beer.

Chandler, of Arthington Lane, Otley, received four and a half years at Leeds Crown Court after admitting causing death by careless driving in December 2007 while under the influence of alcohol. He also pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.

The Appeal Court heard Chandler attempted to cover up damage to his car in the accident. He also escaped to Wales the following day to avoid being breathalysed.

Mr McDonald was charged with manslaughter but was acquitted.

Mr Justice Mackay said the evidence suggested Chandler was around 50 per cent over the legal alcohol limit at the time.

But, despite the gravity of his crimes, the judge concluded his sentence was too long.

The jail term took insufficient account of Chandler?s early guilty plea and the assistance he ultimately gave to the authorities, the judge concluded, cutting his sentence by a year, to three and a half years.

Chandler?s original 10-year driving ban was also halved.

So this fucko, mows down and kills a cyclist, covers up the evidence, disappears to avoid being breatho’d and has his sentence REDUCED after all this?!?! What in the name of fucking fuck was this court thinking?! I hope the driver hangs himself. This is disgusting.

2009 Surrey Rumble Sportive

Gentleman Tom picked myself and the Rubble up from Ealing at 7.30 and drove to the Surrey Rumble start in Cobham. We signed on and I left in the 9.05 wave, a couple of waves down on cliveo and another Rollapaluza rider Jamie. On the first climb I noticed a Cecil Walker road bike. “So, you’re from Melbourne then?” I queried the rider. “Could be” was the reply.

It turns out that Mike (rider of the Cecil Walker custom steel bike) used to race for Blackburn CC in Melbourne – my old club! He’d stopped racing for them before I started but he still knew some of the same people there. Small world eh?

He warned me about a sharp descent and it was well timed as I watched a bloke go down in front of me when a car veered over to avoid some pedestrians. We stopped to make sure he was okay (he was) and carried on.

So, we rode most of the course together talking random stuff about bikes and the Oz/Uk thing all the while my Powertap’s freehub made horrible screeching noises as the bearings slowly ate themselves. I was worried that the hub would seize at any time and leave me in the middle of nowhere with a long walk home. It didn’t thankfully but it looks like I’ll be coughing up 60 quid for a replacement. Stupid Powertap cheese freehubs.

I caught cliveo riding alone but he passed me again in a big bunch when I stopped for a long erm nature break. I rode with his bunch until the first checkpoint, where my card was stickered and we rolled out quickly. I think I left Clive somewhere here. Mike and I passed a tired rider on one of the climbs and then heard a crunch as he hit the deck. It appears he was knackered (riding head down) and just rolled into a roadside ditch! Again, we checked he was okay and we all continued on.

I met Scherrit from the Bike Whisperer at Checkpoint 2 and said g’day before disappearing, leaving Mike behind it seemed.

He was back again after dragging a bunch up to me. Impressive, since I’d been riding quite hard solo for a while, trying to catch a couple of pairs down the road. We did some big turns here (proper 40kph+ stuff) while the others sat on. Bloody triathletes! Even though we’d missed a turn (I was right about that arrow damn it!) and gone around a round-a-bout a few times we’d got back on track and it was now close to home. Mike was slowing on the hills while tri guy went up the road. I had to beat him so I left the Cecil Walker to its own devices and tore off to the wheel of tri guy.. and sat on. He moved over, so did I. He moved back, so did I. He accelerated, so did I. With the speed up we were doing well until another arrow. I thought I saw one and slowed, looked behind me to see two guys turn down the side lane, looked back to see tri guy 100m down the road and then did a U-turn to head home. It was only a mile or so from here and Cillit Bang, I was home. 4:25 for the 125k. Grabbed some cakes and coffee and had a chat to Corrine from the Bike Whisperer. Clive arrived after a while and then Tom, Ricky and Ved, who’d all left in the last wave, arrived. Poor Wayne had to pack because of his back injuries. Other than BDW’s injury, for the rest of us it was a really good day. The course wasn’t insane, so people could ride together, the weather was dry and not too cold, I didn’t really get lost at all and the Surrey Rumble organisers just generally did really well.