My Mum and my Aunty are arriving here at 15:30 from a trip around Europe so I decided to do the Medio Fondo 100k version of this ride rather than the full 170k/100mi Gran Fondo.

It was a 40k cycle there and 40k back so I still end today with 180k on the clock! But at least I’m home before the guests arrive.

My poor coach had told me not to do this so hopefully she’ll be impressed with my choice of the medium course 🙂

This was a good test of my legs after the massive Tour of Wessex last week. I was quite worried about my achilles pain flaring up again. Thankfully this didn’t happen, although the inner left knee tendon pain is still happening.

One other issue for me was the fact that I’ve been crapping through the eye of a needle for the last 2 days! I know you wanted to read that. 🙂 So much for this fruit and yoghurt rubbish – I now know why it makes you lighter! I’m going back to tried and tested: beer, kebabs and chocolate.

The ride itself was another solo affair since the majority of riders opted for the Gran Fondo or the 80k Corto Fondo routes. I passed perhaps 10-15 riders and no one went by me so I figure anyone in front of me was riding in a bunch and left early. Cheating so and so’s! 😛

3:53:57 was my time, 4 minutes off the Gold standard of 3:50 for this distance. Doh! Still, I didn’t have a speedo so without distance and speeds, pacing was done entirely by feel.

I’ve since found out that there was only one rider faster than me! The people already done must have ridden the short route.

My legs have been “dead” since. I’m hoping they’re sorted out before the Londres-Paris in a couple of weeks…

www.chiltern-hundred.org.uk – 2008 Report

www.chiltern-hundred.org.uk – 2008 Results

According to the provisional results I came 2nd in the Chiltern 100 Medio Fondo, 8 minutes down on the winner

www.chiltern-hundred.org.uk

I finished the Tour of Wetex, I mean Tour of Wessex for 2008!

Prelude

Mal and I took Friday off and caught a late afternoon train to Castle Cary from Paddington. When we arrived a random guy from the train mentioned the ride and we got talking. We ended up walking to the registration tent together and his mate gave Mal a lift to the Sparkford Inn, while I rode the 10k there. So, I didn’t catch your name mate but thanks for that! You saved the hassle and cost of finding a cab.

Mum called me from Italy to wish me well. She’s not watching the Giro but she will be dragging my Aunty Lyn along to London soon. Hi Mum 🙂

Day 1

Beautiful weather greeted riders and added some real depth to my tan lines. In fact, that’s how Mal identified most of the people in the Sparkford Inn as cyclists – they all had short-sleeved jersey tan lines like mine 🙂

I cycled the 10k to the start and got there quite early so lined up in front of the electronic timing pads and was one of the first 50 riders to leave. First mistake. Actually, no. My first mistake was not eating breakfast this morning! Idiot! Second mistake was going out in the first 50 which left me little opportunity for getting into a good bunch. It wasn’t until I hit hills that riders were coming past and by then it was too late as I just couldn’t climb like these guys. Combine this lack of climbing ability with the fact that I’m worrying about Day 2 and 3 and you have one messed up rider. I’d attack the hills mid-cassette, forgetting I’d fitted a 26T cassette and could have been twiddling easily over them and then I’d panic about wasting energy and slow right down, losing any drafting benefits from other riders.

I’d also decided to use REGO (carb + protein) in one of my bottles and I think this might have hampered my rehydration as I was cramping in the heat (and I don’t usually suffer cramp). The next two days I’d use GO (carb + electrolytes) and suffer no such cramp.

On the Category 1 climb I was going nowhere, my rear wheel slipping on the steep muddy road but I quickly sat down to transfer my weight to the rear wheel and completed the climb without dismounting (unlike quite a few others, so Des tells me). I hope the pics of me groveling up there are available soon! 🙂

At one point I heard..

Are you Australian?

Yep. (The Australian Cyclones team jersey probably gave it away)

Is your name hippy?

Yep.

Hi, I’m fasteddy. And with that he disappeared up the hill, living up to his alias 🙂

I also received a few words of encouragement from fellow Aussies or at least Aussie fans, thanks to the jersey. Cheers guys!

At one point mid-ride I got into a bunch containing 3-4 Belgian riders in green “Team de Luxe” kit and some others. It was only for a few kilometres until I probably freaked about the pace and gave it up. For the whole ride I was torn between going for a gold or silver time (how I laugh at this goal now!) and saving energy for the next two days.

Descending Cheddar Gorge at speed with surely the only smooth road surface in England and a truck on my wheel was a brilliant interlude to all the climbing bollocks.

Cheddar Gorge, picture by M.J.S.

The last 50k was flattish and I did finally get into a good bunch for a good portion of this. Myself, a Team de Luxe guy, a St Ives CC guy and a guy in a white Assos jersey all fought against a strong (40kph?) wind through the skinny gravelly lanes. This worked well until myself and the Team de Luxe guy missed a turn while talking about our Powertaps!

The guy was from Rochefort in Belgium so I of course told him my story about touring there and the teachers at a youth hostel buying me ‘local’ Rochefort beers and how I now order them online and have some in my fridge but I could only get the 8’s as they were out of the 10’s now… I’m sure he thinks I’m a mental!

It turns out, if you pardon the pun, as well as adding extra distance and having to consult the map to get home we’d also missed the final food station. No more fluids for hippy. It was by then a very real struggle for me to make it. I was angry at missing the turn and adding 10k to the day’s distance, luckily I didn’t even realise there was another feed station until I’d finished! At least there was someone else lost with me. I’d slow down on the hills and he’d tell me not to wait but to be honest I’d rather be a lost duo than a lost solo.

That’ll teach us to compare notes on Powertaps instead of watching the road! I know it’s only 10k but when you are spent.. it may as well be a million miles..

In the end I think I’d hammered too many climbs, not eaten or drunk enough and lost too many bunches not wanting to ‘waste energy’. The hills and wind just combined to make Day 1 very tough. It might have been the shortest day (without our extra bit) but excluding day 3’s conditions, this was the hardest ride for me. Pacing needs work. Fueling needs work. Diet needs… screw that! 🙂

Day 2

The forecast was ominous and the day started out quite wet but conditions improved until I finally removed my jacket and was actually sunburned again!

My legs were stuffed from Day 1. Mal had done her best to massage some life back into them but they weren’t interested. I’d stretched and rested them as much as I could but I’d done some damage to the tendons under my knees – probably straining them on the climbs and just generally didn’t want to go out again, especially not into crap weather. Sense or insanity prevailed. I didn’t enter this event just to wuss out because it was raining – it’s England, it’s always raining! HTFU! 🙂

Due to this inner turmoil I was a bit later starting and ventured into the HQ. They were serving breakfast! Toast and a coffee and who’s now a happy camper?! Out I go, push my way into the line and roll out, suddenly much happier than when I woke up.

There was obviously no chance of fast times today so I decided to sit on a low 200W no matter what and just watch the streams of riders go past me. Usually this behaviour would kill me but I was sore enough and tired enough that I didn’t care if people passed me. No, really, I didn’t chase.. much. This action paid dividends in the end as I rocketed past people that had passed me on the run home. 🙂

Somewhere in the early hills I punctured and watched bloody hundreds of riders go past. I takes me a good 10mins to change a tube (8mins of swearing, 2mins swapping) so plenty of people got to watch.

At the next (first?) food stop I used their track pump to get back full pressure on the rear tyre. Blackburn mini pumps are good but only a steroid-fueled body builder would bother inflating to 100psi+. Only 5k after this feed stop I puncture again! Arrgh! This time it was the front tyre. I must say a big “thank you” to the woman who stopped and gave me her spare tube (I was only carrying 2, so had no more spares at this point). I didn’t use it so if you read this I can return your spare. Thanks! If not, I’m going to find a suitable recipient for it – some poor soul in dire need of a tube.

There was some guy on the side of the road talking to a moto rider. I later found out that he’d hit a car and snapped his carbon Dolan in half!

Long climb over this awesome army firing range. Fantastic views over the various tanks scattered over the land. I stopped here and got out the phone to take pics and left the guy I was swapping turns with carry on.

Great fun descending from here.

I do remember getting into a bunch at some point and just sitting on while this one guy did a load of work. I did finally have go on the front and then we arrived at a food stop where I could top up the low front tyre and scoff two tuna mayo rolls. Very odd food combo at these stops but it did the job.

From here I stormed home. It was like every road was a downhill. Had a blast!

Day 3

Truly horrible conditions today as evidenced by the low starting numbers – only 122 riders finished today, compared to 800 for Day 1! The rain was belting down, well, not so much down as sideways into your face, thanks to the high winds. It made last year’s Dunwich Dynamo seem like a spring commute in London.

Due to the ‘king ‘orrid conditions the organisers shortened the ride from the original 210k to 150k, removing the “Hors” categorised Dunkery Beacon and some of the other “Exmoor” section. I was chatting to a guy on the ride and he said it would have been far too dangerous with the crazy winds and the steep descents. Pity, as I quite wanted to see what a Hors category climb was like. 🙂

At the 25k mark my Powertap gave up the ghost. I finished the ride without power data or any idea of distance to go (probably a good thing!) The unit just continued to cycle through power reading and the setup screen. I think it must have taken in some water? I’ve swapped the batteries and it now says “APIdr” (A P I d r) before turning off. According to this mudandcowbells blog, my Powertap CPU is stuffed. I might be able to rescue it with a firmware update but we’ll see… no power data?!?!? what do I do?!?!?!

Rode with the young bloke from Tor2000 for a few kilometres but he was setting a cracking pace with about four others and at the first hill I shut it down and let them go. The food station at the top of the hill had a shorter bail out option or you turned right for a longer loop. It had to be the full loop! The guy I’d been riding with from the start also picked the long option although he did stop for a cuppa at a pub whereas I flew down a nice wet descent and carried on, not wanting to seize up in a warm pub.

Streams of water flowed across and down the roads. Where there was no water there was debris! Rocks and branches and even fallen trees!!

I have to ride through this?

Glad I wasn’t riding under this! Told you the winds were high!

The safety motorbikes were stalling mid “stream” during some of these “river” crossings. The horrendous winds (and I’m not talking about my high-carb diet here!) meant you really did NOT want to take your hands off your bars for any stretching.

I pushed it really hard towards the end, knowing I was close to finishing the biggest three days of riding I’ve ever done. It was annoying that I had to ride past the Sparkford Inn where we were staying to get to the finish and then ride the 10k back again but I was pretty damn happy to have finished such a big ride. Had a quick chat to fasteddy and some other guys, rolled back to the pub, cleaned up and started drinking! 🙂

Mal and I traveled back the next day (Tuesday) and I took the day off to clean the bike and chill out. I’ve been resting my self-diagnosed achillies tendonitis since. Don’t know why it only got my left foot? Will see if I’m good to ride Chiltern 100 tomorrow (Sunday).

cliveo’s report

Wessex Results:

Day 1: 156th from 792 finishers (5:42:08)

Day 2: 214th from 426 finishers (7:00:37)

Day 3: 58th from 121 finishers (6:19:19)

Overall: 46th from 97 finishers (19:02:04)

Not really wanting to write a full report right now as I’m thinking about the 3-day Tour of Wessex I’m off to tomorrow.

Some points:

– Went to see Pendulum play at Brixton Academy Sat night. Other than Teriyaki at HiFi Bar in Melbourne, this was probably the loudest gig I’ve been to. Deaf for frickin’ days! Got well drunk, jumped around, sweaty as, cabbed home at 3am.

– At 6am, crawled out of bed, changed and cycled to Marylebone Station to catch the first train to High Wycombe (after another coffee).

– Cycled from station to start up a large hill to nearby Hazlemere.

– Rode 182-fscking-kilometres (solo, save for a chat with clubrun Richard) in 6h:32m, coming in 30th out of 80+ riders doing the Long course. If I didn’t get lost and spend so long chatting at the first food stop I could’ve done a top-10.

– It was a very nice day but obviously given hangover and 3hrs sleep I wasn’t exactly prepared. I was suffering at the 130k mark, trying to get more caffeine but couldn’t find a cafe! 🙁

– Saw the sign for Hazlemere but then turned away from it! Doh! Yeah, so it was a bit longer than expected over some big hills and due to low numbers there were just no bunches to save myself from the wind.

www.archergp-sportive.co.uk

“Witnesses to the crash have told smh.com.au the group of about up to 60 professional cyclists were riding south on Southern Cross Drive, just south of Dacey Avenue, Mascot about 6.30am when a driver, agitated with being held up, accelerated in front of the pack and then slammed on his brakes.“

“It is expected he will be charged, including with failing to stop at the scene of an accident and negligent or dangerous driving.“

That’s not “negligent or dangerous driving” it’s attempted fscking murder! This fscking smack head needs locking up, preferably with a gay, ‘roid-raging, shiv-wielding body builder.

www.theage.com.au – angry driver takes out 50-strong cycle pack

1:01:29

Not too shabby for my first 25mi TT especially considering I’d been drinking at Jason and Lizzie’s engagement party from 4pm the day before, drinking at Mal’s pub the night before that and at the Lowlander the night before that. Clearly my drink ban for May has been less than effective. :S

As well as a healthy liver I also lacked aerobars and a silly helmet, unlike everyone else. I was riding with the Powertap 32h wheels too so no disc or carbon bling for this race.

Basically there’s huge potential for me to “buy speed” and really upset Ed and Richo. 🙂

Easily lost 30 seconds when I misunderstood the marshall’s directions and went straight over the roundabout onto the M40 instead of turning right. Whoops! Skid to a near stop and swing around, at the same time get passed by one of the guys that would eventually place top 3. I think it was one of the Agiskoviner riders?

After that my ride was incident free – unlike the three riders who crashed! Here I was thinking time trialling was less risky than mass start racing?!. I was passed by one more rider and passed a few of the riders in front of me, including Willesden’s Chris “Jumbo” James who urged me on. I was motoring along feeling quite good and saw Willesden’s Richard Jerome, yelled out the very original “Willesden!” to him. I was actually feeling fine – all my talk of leaving last night’s cider and kebabs on the road had disappeared pretty soon after getting on the bike actually. I was even grinning and nodding to the various marshalls – what the hell? I’m supposed to be setting a fast time here! I just thought they deserved some sign of appreciation for standing out on a road directing us.

A little way after the turn-around near the 25 kilometre mark though, it all turned painful. I went from cheerfully punishing myself to really having to suffer just to keep my speed up. I thought my speed had plummeted but checking the graphs, maybe it was psychological and not an actual speed decrease? Anyway it was very hard work now and I was now looking at the Powertap every few hundred metres to see how long I had left to ride. There were less riders in front of me now so nothing to chase until quite near the end. I always ride faster when I’m hunting something down. I passed one other rider here.

I don’t really remember much of the latter stages except the very end. I’d reached 40-something kilometres on the Powertap and I couldn’t see a finish line!

“Oh no! Did it not reset properly? Do I have miles and miles still to ride?! But I don’t want to ride any more!!! Oh, no way! Where’s the damn finish line?!?!”

Around a tiny bend I saw the time keeper and a little chequered flag. Punched it over the line and click down some gears, rolling up the ramp and heading towards the HQ.

Mick, who wrote the timing software had come off after a car pulled out in front of him without looking. His arm looked bad, with a big puffy elbow and lots of scratches and blood. He still finished and did a 1:04! Amazing stuff! He’d lost his phone so I lent mine to get the times. Richard Jerome entered them into the software from the as the finish line time keeper called them in.

Richo finished fastest out of the three of us on 59:00 (34th), Ed (who did a 25mi the day before!! Nutter!!) did a 59:11 (35th) and I did 1:01:29 (42nd). The fastest time was mental, around 50min.

I didn’t suffer anywhere near the hip flexor muscle tearing that I did in the 50k 3up which was good news. We scoffed the lovely cakes they had on offer, finished entering rider times, cheered the various placers/winners and then rode home. Rich drove (slacker :P) and I left Ed to catch the train and then proceeded to get lost on the way home, adding 20k to my day. Seriously am I ever going to ride somewhere and not get lost? I think not. I blame the lack of “London, this way” signs in Beaconsfield. 🙂

Ed’s Marlow 25mi TT Report

cyclingtimetrials.org.uk – official results

Willesden CC Blog entry for the race

Here’s a Powertap chart for you to drool over/laugh at: