Road Cycling Essentials

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Soldato
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Ran a teams handicap three stage race today which was good fun. Teams of three riders of similar ability, each rider from the team had to be nominated as the leader for one stage in which they would point score for their team. This meant the other two would as domestiques for the third rider, or you could try and jump on another group and have them do some or all of the work....

First stage handicapped as normal then the handicaps altered depending on finish result. Points scored based on positions across the line.

We finished 5th, 5th and 7th from about 18 teams. Somehow this gave us 7th overall, points must have been weighted towards the first few places. Money paid down to 6th, so no free coffee :(
 
Caporegime
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22 flat miles this morning, average speed of 16.9mph. Wet roads and low sun meant a bit of glare at times, but overall OK. Soooo many other cyclists out - clearly everyone trying to take advantage of the decent weather before winter really bites.
 
Man of Honour
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Clearly you've been talking to two London cyclists who aren't members. In so many ways.

Lol, this was at Calshot velodrome, their reputation spreads far and wide :p

That was my first 'serious' day on the track. Did some routines and coaching to get warmed up and then got stuck into racing. Did a flying lap, 40 lap race and a 4-man team pursuit. I was about 4th slowest on the flying lap and need some practice to get my confidence up hitting the bend at full speed. Came about halfway up the field on the 40 lap race. We really messed up the team pursuit though. Because I'm used to riding fixed gear I was more confident than the others to be pushed off from the bottom of the track and get moving with no slope to help me, but what that meant in practice was I just left everyone behind. I probably needed to be last man on the line so I could hang on the back of the other guys and then power off for the finish. I put that down to all the standing starts I do on my commute :D

Couple of observations... My triceps are killing me today, so I need to use my drops more. Reliable commuting tyres are too hard and skiddy on the track. I need more practice hitting the bends but I could feel my front tyre slipping out. I ran 44/14 gearing because I could get my 44 ring off. It's practically the same as 48/16, but I think I might try 44/15 next time and spin a bit more.

Felt GREAT having the big gears back on my bike though!
 
Associate
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112 miles yesterday to Brighton and back. Started with 14, the group split into 2 on the return leg and slowly the fast group lost people. I was hanging on until about 85 miles then lost it. Stopped, ate a flapjack and cycled slowly home!

http://app.strava.com/activities/224420508

I keep getting comments on my Swissside Hadron's. Yesterday somebody actually shouted "Car back" when I was overtaking!
 
Soldato
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Lovely little fasted ride out in the sun this morning! Wore my Rapha Merino Jersey for the first time today, had compression layer on underneath and was thinking I may be cold as I usually wear the Gabba and compression, so get the wind protection, but the jersey kept out the cold perfectly. Never too hot or cold, although due to it being wool it is a little baggy when you chuck stuff in the pockets!

Popped by local gym I got some free passes for and the guy signing me on commented on it saying he is looking to buy, didn't have the heart to tell him I got it for free :p
 
Soldato
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floating down the Liffey
112 miles yesterday to Brighton and back. Started with 14, the group split into 2 on the return leg and slowly the fast group lost people. I was hanging on until about 85 miles then lost it. Stopped, ate a flapjack and cycled slowly home!

http://app.strava.com/activities/224420508

I keep getting comments on my Swissside Hadron's. Yesterday somebody actually shouted "Car back" when I was overtaking!

Chapeau! Looks like a fairly epic route. Will pinch the GPX for future use if I'm feeling sadistic one day.

EDIT: Bah downloading a gpx is premium-only :(
 
Soldato
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Or I can download it and email if needed.

Noticed I had a chance to hit 2,000km in November, I just needed 139 miles. Knowing I wouldn't be able to ride much yesterday it came to needing 125 miles today.

I wasn't sure how I was going to do this, having had so much bad luck on the bike (getting rescued on Wednesday and having to walk home yesterday) meant I didn't want to stray too far from home but then a friend suggested a route and off we went.

Kept it steady, had a shop stop and a cafe stop but managed it - http://www.strava.com/activities/224884153

Not this week. I'll try next week.

Don't think it'll be this week either :p

I'm away with work Tuesday to Thursday so I guess next weeks mileage will be a lot lower.
 
Soldato
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Or I can download it and email if needed.

Noticed I had a chance to hit 2,000km in November, I just needed 139 miles. Knowing I wouldn't be able to ride much yesterday it came to needing 125 miles today.

I wasn't sure how I was going to do this, having had so much bad luck on the bike (getting rescued on Wednesday and having to walk home yesterday) meant I didn't want to stray too far from home but then a friend suggested a route and off we went.

Kept it steady, had a shop stop and a cafe stop but managed it - http://www.strava.com/activities/224884153

Kudos, that is some effort both today and for the month as a whole!
 
Man of Honour
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Or I can download it and email if needed.

Noticed I had a chance to hit 2,000km in November, I just needed 139 miles. Knowing I wouldn't be able to ride much yesterday it came to needing 125 miles today.

I wasn't sure how I was going to do this, having had so much bad luck on the bike (getting rescued on Wednesday and having to walk home yesterday) meant I didn't want to stray too far from home but then a friend suggested a route and off we went.

Kept it steady, had a shop stop and a cafe stop but managed it - http://www.strava.com/activities/224884153

Don't think it'll be this week either :p

I'm away with work Tuesday to Thursday so I guess next weeks mileage will be a lot lower.


Yup, you're right, damn you :p

Nice ride :)

I didn't get out for any of the long rides I was hoping for this weekend so I had to make do with fitting in turbo sessions around things. Still, look to be on track for 10k, just about.
 
Soldato
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Good, try to get out when you can. Add a mile or something on to every ride and it soon adds up. Most of my miles in the last month have been taking long ways to work and back, I'm already out and winter layered up so made sense just to keep going.
 
Man of Honour
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Good, try to get out when you can. Add a mile or something on to every ride and it soon adds up. Most of my miles in the last month have been taking long ways to work and back, I'm already out and winter layered up so made sense just to keep going.

Yeah. I try to extend my work rides but I'm not a huge fan of riding in the dark so I don't tend to get out as much on weekdays in the winter compared to my summer riding. That's the main reason I got the turbo to be honest - so my miles wouldn't completely drop off the edge of the cliff as soon as it got darker :)
 
Soldato
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It's not a lot of fun in the dark, on my ride after work on Wednesday I could barely see a thing.

I'm trying to hit 10k with all road miles but if the weather turns bad over the next few weeks I'll also be on the turbo.
 
Man of Honour
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It's not a lot of fun in the dark, on my ride after work on Wednesday I could barely see a thing.

I'm trying to hit 10k with all road miles but if the weather turns bad over the next few weeks I'll also be on the turbo.

All road miles would be nice. I've got 400 on the turbo so far this year... I think I'll be happy with just 10k total :p

I've whined about it before but at this point I really do wish that I'd recorded January and Febrary with Strava. Ah well.
 
Soldato
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So....where to begin...

Went to Snowdonia today for a nice cycle ride with a mate from work. Got about 20 km round and I had somewhat of a mishap. Was going down a gentle descent (doing about 36 km/h), wasn't quite paying enough attention, went into a patch of leaves and slid into a gully on the side of the road, sent me flying over the handlebars and faceplanted the floor as my bike skidded past me on the road.

So, the list of ailments:

The bike:

Minor scuffs on the hoods and the back of the seat, one bottlecage smashed to bits, other than that, its pretty much fine, miraculously. My Edge 810 was completely unharmed too.

Me:

Grazed both wrists and knuckles, chin and nose grazed where my glasses slid up my nose, massive patch of road rash on my upper thigh, sore and grazed elbows, swollen and sore knee. Gloves were scuffed but ok, same with jacket but holed one of my tights.

Did manage to carry on a complete the rest of the route though.

One moment of pure hilarity though, about a minute after the crash, I was still massively winded, felt sick and a bit dizzy so was laid out by the side of the road on some grass whilst my mate checked my bike over and retrieved my bottles. A female road cyclist cycled by and shouted over "y' just having a break!??!".....#facepalm

I'm in the crash club now, right?

http://app.strava.com/activities/224910591
 
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Caporegime
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Yeah, I descend like a right wimp. Leaves are deadly at the best of times, never mind on a descent. A few weeks ago a group of us went on a 60 odd mile ride to near Rippenden and back. Big climb in the middle, some ropey descents, long slog home, but we all managed fine. Two miles from home my mate's wife who rides with us from time to time slid on some leaves and scraped her thigh something horrible.
 
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