Put myself in Group B (3.5-4hr for 100k) and for some reason so did Richard and John. They then proceeded to drive the bunch for most of the 100k ride. At a couple of points I found myself in the lead before quickly heading back to my normal wheelsucking location. Since I’d dropped the chain on the Ashdown I’d kind of decided to ride this reliability trial in the big ring and not bother changing down.. I think this was the reason behind me appearing to be ‘good at climbing’.. I mean, come on fellas!

John and I ended up on the front for the final 5-10k and were complemented for holding the pace together. I think we were just too busy talking bollocks to worry about putting the hammer down. With such a relaxed finish it was surprise to find we’d come in in about 3:20 (3:08 ride time on my PT) for the 95k(ish). The route appeared to have been cut a bit short – I think due to dodgy roads since the snow. According to Rich, we actually beat the ‘fast’ A group time. Ha!

I appear to have failed dismally with the recovery from this ride, skipping turbo Tuesday and its catch up on Thursday. I feel less guilty (perhaps) since I’m reading Joe Friel’s Cyclists Training Bible where he makes a point of “if in doubt, leave it out”. My issue appears to be I’m leaving out ALL my training! :S

Click for bigger version of my phone cam photo.

The 2009 Hell of the Ashdown sportive didn’t quite deliver the fire and brimstone I was expecting. How sad it’s only Melbourne burning up. Instead they turned on a different kind of hell.. a daily maximum temperature of 0 degC.. yes.. ZERO degrees celsius and snow.. yes, my Australian friends.. that white stuff that falls from the sky.. SNOW!

I knew it was going to be cold so I had on two pairs of socks, a head warmer and cap and arm warmers under my jacket. I missed my planned train to Orpington (last night’s vodka and a headwind conspired against me) so my start time was around 10:10 after Rollapaluza CC member Ant lead me from Orpington to the start (he lives local).

After a kilometre downhill there was a steep (25% at the end) climb. Nice warmup, thanks guys! Here I caught up with Matt and Estelle from LFGSS/Rollapaluza and we rode together for a bit (it’s always nice to have a bit of company to pass the miles) until we hit a T-junction with no direction sign and I followed another rider while they consulted directions. It seems a few people made the same mistake but I found myself back with some bunches and carried on.

The wind meant that any flat road was hard work. The hills (here’s a list of the big ones: 1. Cudham Test Hill 2. Toys Hill 3. Hollow Lane (Dormansland) 4. Kidds Hill/Ashdown Forest (THE WALL) 5. ?Col de Groombridge? 6. Bayley?s Hill 7. Star Hill) were hard work and even the descents were a bit of a worry due to the likelihood of encountering my arch enemy – “black ice”. You could see frozen pools on the side of the road in a lot of places and in some spots the water run-off had flowed across the road and then frozen. VERY slow through these. This was only a training ride for me and I’d easily made the decision to ride it safely rather than try to bust out a fast (for me) time.

After climbing Kidds Hill aka “The Wall”, around the half-way point, I met Claus (another Rolla rider). We finished our bananas and rolled out. He was faster than me climbing so I was going to let him go but I seemed to hang on and then.. well.. he just kinda disappeared. He mentioned going pretty hard in the first 50k.. pacing my friend, pacing 🙂

I carried on alone from here and it was now snowing quite heavily. The wind gusted snow drifts across the roads and into your eyes, making for some interesting cycling! There were a few stages where all I could do was remove my shades and drop my head, following the trails left in the snow by previous riders. I stopped a couple of times here to try and find out what was making the odd noise from the bottom bracket or rear wheel of my bike but didn’t find anything. Rolled through the second checkpoint without taking anything on, since the bloke said “only 15 miles to go”.

After this I kept looking at my computer. This is a sign that I’m not really having that much fun! 🙂 “How far have I got to go?!” I was so glad to have worn the extra clothing but the wind, snow and hills had taken their toll. Riding up Star Hill, I was under the impression it was the last major climb but another guy in SEUR kit suggested there was another 25% climb to go. Not looking forward to that. Still, on we plodded on, all the while expecting another climb and low and behold it never appeared! Woo! The finish line!

I crossed the line in 3:59:53 – not bad considering the horrible conditions and the 1500m of climbing.

Claus, Matt, Estelle and I sat down with some coffee/tea and food before going our separate ways back to London. Of course I got slightly lost going back to Orpington – via that horrid 25% starting climb – Cudham Test Hill I guess it was. My hands were so cold and painful on the train I thought I’d got frost bite or something! The circulation did return fully however, allowing me to ride home from London Victoria in one piece. All in all this was quite a challenging day, due for the most part to the weather conditions. It’s a good little ride being so close to London. Give it a go.

Oh yeah, BIG THANKS to the poor marshalls and organisers who had to stand out in the cold all day for us! You guys rock!

Saturday: Gorgeous weather held out for the LFGSS Tweed Ride. It was a fantastic day of cycling all over central London with about 150 riders dressed in tweed or retro outfits. I’ve never, NEVER seen so many pedestrians, drivers and police smiling at a bunch of cyclists before. It’s like the tweed clothing makes riders such a novelty that people forget they hate you for a second. Absolutely fantastic fun riding all over town.. EVERYONE was having a great time, I don’t think I stopped smiling for the entire day, which for me, must have caused a terrible strain on those particular facial muscles 🙂

There were prizes from Huntsman on Saville Row for best dressed gentleman and dame, best ‘tache from Geo F Trumper, best bike from Tour de Ville and Hendrick’s put on some Gin and Tonic for us at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club

eyebrows’ bike-cam video of the ride

It appears the tweed trend has gone global now..

arkitipintel.com (Le Car’s blog)

gearbrisbane.com

acontinuouslean.com

catcubed.com

bikesandthecity.blogspot.com

urbanjunkies.com

thewashingmachinepost.net – “break out the fixed velocipede, jeeves”

“All that remains is for these bamboo freaks to band together and take to the streets, like those Tweed Run weirdos in London.” (bikesnobnyc)

For lots of images from the LondonFGSS Tweed Ride click here. They’ve been tagged with “lfgsstweedrun”.

Sunday: Harp Hilly 100k. The forecast was 6am Heavy Rain, 9 Heavy Rain, 12 Heavy Rain, 15 Heavy Rain.. and the actual weather certainly didn’t disappoint!

I didn’t get as lost as last year on the way to the start so made it with time to spare. It was ?10 entry this time since they were running it more like a sportive than a reliability ride and had marked the course, had electronic timing and food, etc. The ride itself was a bit messy but good fun. I’d forgotten my glasses and it seemed I was almost the only rider with full mudguards.. the spray off rider’s rear tyres made drafting with open eyes quite difficult!

The rain let up for a bit but then started again towards the end of the 100k ride. This time I did some of the ride alone and some of it with bunches. I didn’t get lost and managed to ride over Bison Hill and Ivinghoe Beacon this time. Unfortunately I got excited near the end at the 95k mark and took off from the bunch I was with in a dash for the line. In typical hippy fashion I must have gone straight past a turn and around the 103k mark I was in Hemel Hempstead itself. Hmm.. this can’t be right.. at 110k I was half way to Watford! Arrrgh! So I decided to forgo the nice cup of coffee and some food and my finish time and head straight home.

Now my route sheet was trashed from the damp so I ended up on some major roads.. wondering where to turn. In the end I found the A4008 and did a large about-face back to Watford, before finding a sign that said “Harrow”. So at last I was heading in the correct direction! One more wrong turn (although I picked this one up early) and I made it home with 183k on the clock! I’d taken my GPS but fat lot of good it did, running out of juice after 20k :S

Looking at my Powertap data I appear to have done about 3:50 for the 100k, which is pretty good time considering the nature of the ride and the conditions. Will be taking this week easy to recover and then Hell of the Ashdown on Feb 1st.

I’ve just started to pull the finger out, as it were, with regards to training. It feels good feeling bad! Well, feeling sore from riding, if you get my drift?

Currently at a ‘feather-weight’ 93kg with a resting HR of 55bpm and a max still around 200bpm.

I’ve got less time this year to train for my big event, the Tour of Ireland Cycle Challenge since it’s in early May rather than late June for the 2008 Londres-Paris.

I’ve got a turbo trainer at home now thanks to London’s 47th most ineligible courier, wiganwill. I’ve also found a motivated ToI entrant in the form of CliveO. Last night JoeS, CliveO and myself did 3 circuits over Muswell Hill (Clive and I were riding fixed) which put a nice sting into the legs (it combined nicely with Tuesday’s club turbo and Sunday’s clubrun) before I headed over to West Drinks and then didn’t end up leaving Dancing James’s until 3:30am or something silly! Rum and tweed. Jolly good, old bean!

The Harp Hilly is on this Sunday so I’m hoping 1) not to get too drunk during Saturday’s fund-raising ‘tweed’ ride around London and 2) not get lost on the way to Hemel Hempstead again.

400 Euro deposit paid. Tour of Ireland 2009.