Road Cycling Essentials

Berger · 7 Sep 2013 at 07:40

Super tough B Grade scratch today. Really windy which I hate... 25-40kmh winds.

Got dropped within the first 5km!

Started off at a reasonable speed, whilst people were sorting an order out, I ended up with a small rider infront of me so great wheel to sit on, then someone decided to hammer it almost straight away, got a bit of a gap as there was a bit of an elastic effect in the group. Strong winds meant no chance to get back on. Lesson learnt, sit a few riders futher forwards! Someone else got dropped too who I've ridden quite a lot with.

We ended up working together, though he put in more than a fair share of the work, dangled about 30 seconds back from the group for ages, started catching them before the climb too. I put in an effort on the climb to see if I could pull back a bit but no luck. Rode on to the end even though I felt like giving up, I went quicker than I did two weeks ago which is some consolation.

Little disappointed, felt like I raced really well on Sunday last week and put in some decent training this week and have seen an improvement in my riding. My time up the climb wasn't the best, faded towards the top.

Can't really pin it down to being one thing, but a bad day riding is better than no riding at all, it will make you fitter at the end of the day! I need to get up to 200km a week riding, sitting on about 150 at the moment which is the most I can really manage with a couple of days off/working away.

Spring has certainly arrived too, 26c according to the internet, my Garmin said it was hotter than that!

uniQ · 7 Sep 2013 at 08:05

helpimcrap said:
Did my first 10 mile time trial on a TT bike (2nd TT I've ever done as i did boxing day last year on my road bike for fun) on Tuesday. Was a bit disappointed - 27:53. Was hoping to be closer to 25mins.

That's still a great time for first/second TT @ 21.5mph avg. Not to be sniffed at. Good work & practice makes perfect

uniQ · 7 Sep 2013 at 08:10

Berger said:
Lesson learnt, sit a few riders futher forwards! Someone else got dropped too who I've ridden quite a lot with.

I learn't this on the first changang effort I went on

Little disappointed, felt like I raced really well on Sunday last week and put in some decent training this week and have seen an improvement in my riding. My time up the climb wasn't the best, faded towards the top.

Can't always be on top form, and chasing the pack takes up a lot more energy than sitting in the peleton so unsurprising really.

Spring has certainly arrived too, 26c according to the internet, my Garmin said it was hotter than that!

Yeah OK. Don't rub it in.

GAC · 7 Sep 2013 at 08:13

seems footballers still cant drive. cyclist clipped in altrincham

https://twitter.com/farnie/status/376027798458368001

platypus · 7 Sep 2013 at 08:54

uniQ said:
Good price on SiS bars:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/science-in-sport-go-energy-bar-65g-/rp-prod83042

Oooh. The SiS bars are lovely too.

arknor · 7 Sep 2013 at 10:06

GAC said:
seems footballers still cant drive. cyclist clipped in altrincham

https://twitter.com/farnie/status/376027798458368001

and one of the comments

Farnie ‏@farnie 15h

@TonyChurnside @cyclingforgirls @amandajp17 been reported to police but they can't trace foreign plates. Hence asking twitter.
Details

wow that's crazy so you can stick foreign plates on , break the law and cops aren't bothered because they cant trace foreign plates? :eek:

Nexus · 7 Sep 2013 at 10:20

topgun06 said:
Its all a matter of getting used to them. You will have wobbles and may even fall off. But eventually you will get the hang of them.

You will not be able to use cycle shoes in the gym. Well, you could... but they would simply be unsuitable.

I suppose it depends what he is referring to though.

If he means spinning classes or a watt bike or something, many people do take cycling shoes because they offer the ability to clip in.

If he's planning to run on a treadmill though, like you say, not a good idea!

topgun06 · 7 Sep 2013 at 10:59

I assumed the latter

Vonhelmet · 7 Sep 2013 at 11:10

38 mile round trip to Knowsley and back for me this morning, figuring out a route to the safari park for the TOB TT next Tuesday. Some of the roundabouts round St. Helens were a bit parp inducing, but apart from that it was OK. I might look at a route through the town centre to avoid that.

Mind you, as nasty as the roundabouts were, it was on a nice straight bit of single carriageway that I nearly came a cropper. Some ancient dumbass coming the other way turned right across my path, never mind that I was banging along at 22mph. I braked and shouted liberally and narrowly missed the back end of his car. Idiot.

Clearly the long flat warm up helped - I got several PRs on the home stretch.

physichull · 7 Sep 2013 at 11:25

Perhaps try going through Burtonwood and Clock Face.

Thomas. PLease. · 7 Sep 2013 at 11:36

helpimcrap said:
Did my first 10 mile time trial on a TT bike (2nd TT I've ever done as i did boxing day last year on my road bike for fun) on Tuesday. Was a bit disappointed - 27:53. Was hoping to be closer to 25mins.

2 issues -
1. thought my elbow injury would be better suited to it. It was perfectly - it put all the strain on my other shoulder! Had to come out of the TT position 3 or 4 times because of the pain!
2.TT seats hurt!! Lol. Ouch! How can people do 4hr TTs on them is beyond me! All in all i have spent about 3hrs total time setting bike up for my arm. Raising TT bars up, widening them and turning the gear shift 45 degrees as they're on S bars.

Just need more time on the bike.

Edit - did it all without a working speedo too! So just off 'feel'. I push myself harder when I've got something I need to achieve and can see how I'm getting on.

I'd get your position checked, I know you've had injuries but you shouldn't be hurting in the aero position unless you have a super aggressive setup. Same goes for the saddle, shouldn't cause any pain at all. I would imagine it needs position and angle etc looking at.

SoliD · 7 Sep 2013 at 11:40

Got absolutely soaked this morning! Went out in bright sunshine and about half way round all of a sudden the clouds came rolling in and dropped a whole load of water! Got my jacket on just in time!

minty · 7 Sep 2013 at 11:52

Nice early ride to around Knutsford this morning

http://www.strava.com/activities/80658330

Some humongous houses seen along the way

Vonhelmet · 7 Sep 2013 at 11:59

minty said:
Nice early ride to around Knutsford this morning

http://www.strava.com/activities/80658330

Some humongous houses seen along the way

Nice. You might have passed some of my usual gang, who were heading to Delamere this morning. And we probably missed each other by minutes on the way back up from Leigh to Atherton!

On the subject of nice houses, etc... Newton-Le-Willows is very pretty. St. Helens is most definitely not.

oli collett · 7 Sep 2013 at 12:21

Anyone else doing Etape Cymru tomorrow?

helpimcrap · 7 Sep 2013 at 12:43

Thomas. PLease. said:
I'd get your position checked, I know you've had injuries but you shouldn't be hurting in the aero position unless you have a super aggressive setup. Same goes for the saddle, shouldn't cause any pain at all. I would imagine it needs position and angle etc looking at.

Cheers for input - yeah I've thought about it and considered swapping seat with road bike but someone suggested tilting the seat forward which might help as i spend more time on my road bike but i sit more upright so it makes sense. I think i need more time on the bike. That tilting might sort out the arm issue too?

helpimcrap · 7 Sep 2013 at 12:45

uniQ said:
That's still a great time for first/second TT @ 21.5mph avg. Not to be sniffed at. Good work & practice makes perfect

Thanks.

I didn't know what to expect but next year I've got somewhere to start from.

Disco Boy · 7 Sep 2013 at 14:37

Really nice day for riding today. I went for my second club outing. I had planned on going with their "medium-slow" and then set off with their "medium" because I missed the m-s setting off. Anyway, the mediums were on the back of the m-f for quite a while, then the group split and I wasn't switched on enough not to end up with the m-f.

Anyway this resulted in me being gassed after 30 miles @19avg. Taking a turn in the wind was jut a bad idea! So, I stopped at a nice pond in Thame and had a can of coke before cycling the 20 miles back to the cafe solo.

With the group (+4 miles solo)
http://www.strava.com/activities/80677044
Solo
http://www.strava.com/activities/80677022

arknor · 7 Sep 2013 at 14:40

went for my normal route along the tyne and then discovered part of the cycling path was water logged...

it was like clay with a film of water on the top so now my bike is a huge mess....
another part of the cycling path was so deep in water you couldn't even see it so I had to take a detour through some bushs and trees...

Then I discovered on the other side of the gap in the trees! a NCN72 sign pointing into where I had just came from!

I'm going to start taking my phone so I can document the state of some of newcastles so called cycling paths after a bit of rain.

guess I need to find a new route for when It's rained the previous day...
http://www.strava.com/activities/80689856

Vonhelmet · 7 Sep 2013 at 14:46

Cycling infrastructure in this county is a disgrace. Such a half arsed afterthought. You're best to just stick to the roads