Road Cycling Essentials

[platypus]

Insufficient privileges to view your ride.

Odd, its set to public.

 

[chanjy]

Odd, its set to public.

17mph average, she's not that slow mate, what are you on about?!

 

[grudas]

Came home with a Triban 5 this morning; just been for a cheeky 18Miler with my dad (he used to be a cyclist when he was my age) Now, not so much
http://www.strava.com/activities/79163147


Follow me on Strava

better?

 

[NooBish AbbZ]

better?

Much

 

[platypus]

17mph average, she's not that slow mate, what are you on about?!

It was a gentle jibe .

 

[Vonhelmet]

Odd, its set to public.

Got it now. Odd. Good speed over that distance and with that amount of climbing.

I'm plotting a metric century with over 5000ft of climbing next year. I haven't yet decided what measurement system I'll use to measure my speed.

 

[grudas]

Much

awesome, what are you doing with the other bike?

 

[Vonhelmet]

Came home with a Triban 5 this morning; just been for a cheeky 18Miler with my dad (he used to be a cyclist when he was my age) Now, not so much
http://www.strava.com/activities/79163147


Follow me on Strava

Ooh, another rider in my neck of the woods.

 

[oli collett]

Essex 100 was good fun

I was confused at the start when they were talking about the 'lunch' stop during the ride. I didn't realise they meant a 'feed station' was going to be a full on spread! Really impressive compared to some of the wiggle rides i've done, ended up stopping for 25mins to stuff my face

Only downside to the ride was a minor off when I wasn't concentrating - ended up on a verge, panicked and instead of just easing off, I unclipped and applied my front brake thankfully didn't go over the handlebars or anything serious!

http://www.strava.com/activities/79208387
Forgot to turn my garmin on for the start - pretty pleased with my avg. moving speed, almost as fast as the London 100 but this was on open roads and whilst there was no real climbing I think it was a lot more 'undulating' than ride london and a lot windier.

Also - think I saw SoliD at the lunch stop - would have said hello but then realised it could have been anyone in an AG2R jersey!! Hope you had a good ride

 

[uniQ]

Maintain your bike(s)... or you might get killed by a Mountain Lion

Authorities suspect the same mountain lion also killed 35-year-old Mark Jeffrey Reynolds, whose body was found partially buried Thursday near his disabled bike. He apparently had been killed earlier in the day.

"The chains fell off and somehow broke, and while he was attempting to fix his bike is when the attack happened,"

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-01-09-mountain-lion_x.htm

 

[One More Solo]

Essex 100 was good fun

I was confused at the start when they were talking about the 'lunch' stop during the ride. I didn't realise they meant a 'feed station' was going to be a full on spread! Really impressive compared to some of the wiggle rides i've done, ended up stopping for 25mins to stuff my face

I had similar on a sportive, the guy looked genuinely offended when I grabbed a flapjack and kept moving. Good effort on the ride.

 

[ShiWarrior]

I had similar on a sportive, the guy looked genuinely offended when I grabbed a flapjack and kept moving. Good effort on the ride.

LOL

 

[Shamrock]

Only downside to the ride was a minor off when I wasn't concentrating - ended up on a verge, panicked and instead of just easing off, I unclipped and applied my front brake thankfully didn't go over the handlebars or anything serious!

Lol!

You should do this ride with me, you get a free bottle of wine halfway round which you have to carry in your bottle cage.

http://www.stcrispinsdaynightride.com/

 

[thepeteh]

My weekends efforts, nothing particularly big.

My morning ride before an afternoons swim;

http://www.strava.com/activities/78883177

Took my bike out to go and watch a local annual 10K run this morning, I normally enter but I'm a little under the weather so just cheered them on, then did my ride in the afternoon

http://www.strava.com/activities/79216057

 

[Auraomega]

Posted this in the other bike thread, *shudders*

Got myself a new bike a few days back:

Fast as hell, speed demon doesn't even begin to explain it! Going to grab a pair of trispokes and replace the front spinergy full time and swap between the disc on the rear (that thing really is a nightmare in windy situations).

I'm looking for some relatively long flat courses to see what speed I can build up to and maintain; it's a bit of a learning curve on the aero bars (I had some clip on ones, felt completely different), but now I'm getting used to them. I'd also be interested in finding a real steep, real long down hill run with no danger of hitting a wall/crossroads/other danger to see what sort of max I can reach on it! Does anyone have any recommendations in or near the Midlands?

 

[Disco Boy]

Wibble.

What's that saddle?

 

[touch]

What frame is it and where did you get it from?

I'm considering a new frame for my TT bike. I just cant get a decent position on it and i'm starting to think it might be a bit small for me.

 

[Thomas. PLease.]

Saddle looks like an ISM adamo, and frame looks like a Chinese one. Definetly not a cervelo frame?

 

[Auraomega]

Wibble.

What's that saddle?

Saddle looks like an ISM adamo, and frame looks like a Chinese one. Definetly not a cervelo frame?

Yep, ISM Adamo, uncomfortable as hell (ahem, Marmite is the term I believe) and will be quickly replaced. Frame is indeed Chinese. Guy I got it from added the Cervelo decals, but I think I'd have preferred it without. His choice of tape is questionable too

 

[touch]

Missed my Saturday club race, but entered the Western Division Championships which was today instead. Had riders from about 5 clubs racing.

I was happy enough with that as I just wanted to keep up. I pulled turns going out, unfortunately I did the last one before the tight U turn. It's supposed to be neutral racing about 200m either side of the turn, but coming out of the U-turns people always put the hammer down. Having just done my turn it really hurt as it was uphill and we were going quick. Dug deep and managed to hang on, just sat on the back and skipped a few turns on the return leg to recover. I wasn't the only one who was missing turns, I'm sure that a few riders never did a single turn.

Well done, especially in the harder category race.
Are you riding alone or are you in a club with teammates in these races?
It sounds like you're doing a lot of work on the front.
It's a tough situation to be in: if you work to chase the break, the people who sat at the back and didnt do anything will be fresher and probably beat you in the sprint, but if you dont do any work, there's a chance the break wont be caught and even if your fresh for the sprint and beat the bunch, you'll still only be 4th.

Your main focus in a race should be to save as much energy as possible until you need to use it.
Try to be aware of everything that's happening in the race. How many riders went in the break? How many are working at the front of the bunch to chase it? If there are more working in the bunch, they'll probably bring it back, so you dont need to help them.
Work out the time gap to the break (check the time when the break passes a fixed point on the road, check again when the bunch passes, work out the difference) and keep doing that. Is the gap coming down? If so, you dont need to go and help chase.
Check out who you're racing against. Are those guys in the break the over-excitable type who sprint off only to blow up 5 miles later? Or are they the type of guys who can last a whole race in the break? Obviously you cant know everybody, but you can look through the start list and check out previous results to see who the strong guys are. Remember the numbers and if you see them starting a break, try and get in there with them.