TOTP2011 - The Report

(NB:-That's Tour of the Peak, not Top of the Pops!) All in all a brutal day out on the bike!

Overcast, but warm was how the day started as we left the campsite in Ashbourne at around 6am for the drive north to the start at Chapel en le Frith Leisure Centre

First in line at the start (didn't last), the first 2 miles were qucikly despatched, but then the road went up (and up) and we hadn't even reached the first of the three main climbs! This set the scene - lumpy was to be the terrain - every uphill, would have its own often terrifying downhill attached, but what goes down, must go up (again!)

20 miles in and we reached the outskirts of Macclesfield and with it the start of the Cat and Fiddle climb (see pic above) a gradual climb up to the Cat and Fiddle pub, initially climbing through trees and then out onto bleak moorland. The reward was a circa 40mph descent towards Buxton, before more lumpyness ensued.

33 miles in we reached Tideswell, and with it the first feed station - quick toilet break, and then energy drinks re-stocked and cake eaten and off we went with one thought in mind - "next stop" Winnats Pass...

A crazy often blind cornered descent into Castleton was enjoyed (?), before the inevitable was reached - greeted by the cheery sign below - it was time to go upwards as never before!

 Engaging a relatively low gear, it wa time to focus on the tarmac 3 feet in front of my front wheel and grind it out for the next 10-15mins (never has just over a mile seemed to last so long!). Halfway up, you can see the determination in my face, and a small bonus of having passed and dropped a few riders in my wake

Almost as the hill was crested and the final cattle grid reached, a familiar car came over the horizon with its occupants madly waving - I would like to believe that i waved forcefully back at my family and smiled, but i think it was more of a quick hand up and a grimace!

Up and over Mam Tor, and then another crazy downhill into the Hope valley and past Edale, popping out of the valley road in Hope (almost back where we had come from when entering Castleton). Onwards pst Ladybower Reservoir and some amazing views from the viaduct before turning North again and onto Feed Station 2 at 67miles-ish - Another Pub, the Waggon and Horses @ Langsett - alas the landlady was not a cycling fan it would appear as somewhere in translation she had not realised that 300 of us would descend upon her establishment - all desperate to use the facilities - ho hum, more drinks/food and off for the 3rd and final (yeah right) climb - Holme Moss.

Holmfirth famed for its Last of the Summer Wine connections was passed through fairly quickly and for a few hundred metres or so, a small shower threatened to rain on my particular parade, but it soon passed and as the road kicked on ever upwards the vast radio mast atop "The Moss" came into view, and there it would stay for a good few minutes more as the climb steadily continued - painted on the road was a countdown from 1.25miles to go downwards, which initially i thought would be good, but I soon settled for an alternative opinion that it was just depressing seeing how long I had taken to go each 1/4 mile!

Another great 40mph descent and then it was on around Woodhead Reservoir and onto Glossop and beyond Hayfield - somewhere along this stretch the family again had parked up and cheered us through complete with our names chalked on the road - quite a moment!

A few more lumps and then a descent into Chapel en le Frith (see below)

Finally the Start/Finish was reached and I exchanged my bike number (5854) for my goody bag - more High5 nutrition products plus a Kilo to Go buff, the leisure centre was also serving chilli and rice for £3 - genius! (so I indulged myself)

So the tale of the tape was 7hrs 11mins cycling time, not awesome, but under the 8 hours i had secretly wanted to be under (slightly miffed that on reflection 7 hrs wasn't breached but there's always another year...

Actually Simon's words were classic atop Holme Moss - "well that's another one (climb) off the list and it's no going back on either!"

Next challenge...?

TDF in review

In a word - CAV!

So as far as my predictions went, I had both Schlecks and Evans in my podium possibles, so close but no cigar there. Green Jersey I did get right, White was an abysmal guess - who is Robert Gesink or rather where was he? Polka Dot again i failed big time. The Shack imploded too

All in all a great tour the highlights for me:
Gilbert was a breath of fresh air - attacking all over the place.
Cav with 5 stages and green was in great form - off to Sky next year or not?
Sad to see Wiggo crash but there's aways next year, Geraint Thomas was immense.
Schleck attacking before the Galibier - brilliant.
Voeckler - quite simply amazing.
Hoogerland and Flecha - Heroes.
Evans - slow and sure wins the race (not including blitzing all but one in the final TT!)

Well done Mr Prudhomme - encore encore!

As for me 6654miles completed ytd and under 3 weeks till TOTP - more soon!!!

Book Plug + TDF Predictions

Still cycling lots of miles have tipped over the 5500 mark but more about that in another posting sometime...

So Father's Day came and went, and with it I acquired 2 new books, Ned Boulting's "How I Won the Yellow Jumper" and David Millar's "Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of..."

Have read them both in just over a week, and enjoyed them both immensely. HIWTYJ is a mix of anecdotes from the tour featuring the players from the past 8 years written in a humerous style, The Fall and Rise is a biography of DM, charting his early success his descent into drugs, his ban and then his resurrection into a staunch anti doper and his career since with Saunier Duval and now Garmin. Slaying the Badger, Sky's the Limit and Robbie McEwen's Autobiography are all next on my shopping list!

So onto this years Grande Boucle, Le Tour, the TDF, the French lap, all the way round the hexagon and other pseudonyms.

The Jersey's
Yellow - Andy Schleck
Green - Mark Cavendish
White - Robert Gesink / Roman Kreuziger
Polka Dot - No idea really with the rule changes but will go for David Moncoutie

As for the rest of the podium, Bertie will be there or thereabouts as will Schleck senior and as an outside maybe Evans?

Obviously I would love to see Brad Wiggins top 5 if not on the podium, and would also like to see The Shack represented in the Top 10, with Levi, Horner, Brajkovic and Kloden they must be in with a shout surely?

Looking forward to the ITV4 coverage with Phil & Paul on commentary and then Chris, Ned, Gary and Matt on analysis. It all kicks off Saturday 2nd July 12.00pm - I will be there!

Halfway & TOTP

Currently halfway on 2011 target (5000 miles done!), which is around 4 weeks ahead of mileage achieved last year.

Next target looming is Tour of the Peak - under 9 weeks to go, and already those hills (Cat and Fiddle, Winnats Pass and Holme Moss), combined with the distance (97 miles) appear daunting!

Pretty challenging, living in Norfolk to find decent and sufficient hills to practise on, suffice to say that every day I ride, I will be including a hill, where I can, nd i am also aiming to do repeated hill work, 1 ride per week - ave speed will drop, but strength will rise?!

Weather continues to be generally warm and dry - problem is, i get really jarred off every time it does rain now as it is so unexpected!

In other news, Wiggo wins the Dauphine - Get in! Tour de Suisse is underway, and the Tour de France loms, with Bertie confirming his attendance - UCI & others are rubbish at making decisions, creating more embarrassment for a great sport. TDF predictions to follow, in a week or two...

Norwich 100 - the report

First century ride of the year - the C2C team re-united, plus others seconded in, or were we seconded to them - hmm - anyway there was a posse of 6 that started the event at circa 7.15 yesterday morning.

The lads from London, had confessed their desire to do a sub-5hr, and although a reasonable start, they soon got itchy feet and took off, a couple of miles before Reepham, but we were progressing well, and despite forecasts of a 25km/h NE wind, were hitting some decent speeds and consistently overtaking riders without being overtaken ourselves, a brief stop at around 30 miles gone, at Hindringham before pushing on to Sheringham High School for the compulsory lunch stop at around 45miles gone - who eats lunch at 10am in the morning? 18 mph average to this point, so all good (the sub-5hr boys were ahead, but still around 10mins off schedule)

'Lunch' consumed it was on round the coast for what was to be the fastest stint of the ride - easy to say looking back through the old rose tinted specs, but we were flying, it wa like an express train powering round the coast road, pickig up ridersand leaving tehm in our wake - in fact we were only overtaken once on the road by a group of club cyclists just prior to Sea Palling. Arriving at Horsey Mill, and a welcome cup of coffee and comfort break, before hopping back onboard for the final push for home (25 to go) - at this point a sub 5.30 was more than do-able.

With wind favourable now, yet strangely had not felt it truly behind all day we clicked off the miles before it was evident that my rear tyre was getting breathless around Coltishall. Admitting defeat at Spixworth, a quick inspection confirmed a slow puncture but with 4 to go a quick blast of air and back on. now intermingling with the 50 riders too we were again able to pass people at will, and arrived safely back at the cathedral in 5hrs10 for the start to finish of the route (98ish miles), with around 5hrs 17 being recorded for an actual 100miles.

The Bromley boys done good with 4.57, but being only 13 minutes back felt pretty good.
It remained for us to pick up our certificates / medals and soak up the atmosphere in the cathedral grounds. All in all, 2011 - a good year!

Same again?!

You are a winner! - Well I am anyway.

Yep I won a competition, not strictly speaking a cycling competition per se but cycling helped!

Endomondo, a great site for recording workouts for almost any sport via direct mobile app or uploading your GPS results, run a series of virtual challenges each month, with various prizes on offer. I have been recoding data on the site for a year or so and "participate" in many of the challenges - "winning" some but always "competing".

Anyhow I was one of three winners for the April comp and will have some new kit heading my way as pictured above!

Elsewhere I have crashed through 4000miles for the year and with the Norwich 100 2 weeks away am looking forward to putting the miles in the legs to some serious effort! An ever growing potential posse of riders, there could be 7 or 8 of us forming a peleton on the day.

Great weather continues, and although chilly starts are the norm, the wet stuf is still absent, just a bit gusty at times - but as this is Britain, what would there be to remark upon if we did not have variable weather?

In other news Horner wins Amgen Tour of California, a great week for Team Radioshack, with Levi in 2nd and Bertie looks to be on for the Giro (hoping that he is not retrospectively dumped for that steak incident). Sad but it almost looks like no one else has "turned up" for the race.

The death of Wouter Weylandts, during the 1st week of the Giro was devastating for the sport, and illustrates how ragile life is - there but for the grace of God. RIP WW108.

Elsewhere Tyler Hamilton has fingered Lance for EPO / doping and other shenanigans. Truth is I don't know, but i still find it hard to believe - Innocent until proven guilty is and should remain as the stand that is taken. The internet is alive with the Lance haters, but no-one is brave enough to stick their head up above the parapet in support - the story will run and run, but I for one hope that the legend continues.

Normal Service is Resumed...

Aaah back to work, well for a day and then a long weekend, and then a 3 day week and then a long weekend and then a 4 day week and then a....

Bank holidays don't you love em? - just an additional excuse to get out and ride - huh?

Rounded off April with a celebratory Royal Wedding ride of 60miles, making it a (colossal?) 1144miles for the month - #30DaysOfBiking - well missed a few days but got out on seperate rides 33 times, and it hasn't rained once! - YTD figures up to 3500miles!

Looking forward to the Giro, but disappointed that Ballan has been exposed as a doper, slowly slowly catchy monkey(s) i guess? #FantasyCyclign is a lot of fun too - currently residing 488th out of 2000-odd teams.

Wind has dropped again today, with sunshine still remaining so hopefully a few more miles will be churned out this week too

Sabbatical - the last days

Sorry, got a bit lax with my updates, but here goes for days 25 - 31:
More cycling needless to say - sun is out and its been hot so what else would you do huh?
Thurs   42.45 miles
Fri        22.07 miles
Sat       22.08 miles
Sun      Day off!
Mon     43.35 miles
Tues     Day off!
Weds   58.47 miles

As you can see, plenty of miles and all on the posh bike too!

Day 26 & 27 was back on LT Foundations with John Groves on Pastoral Theology - a good couple of days, on Sunday, (Day 28) I went to Kings @ Mile Cross and spent the morning helping with their children's work - great fun!

The final few days of the sabbatical in amongst the cyclign aforementioned have been spent decirating the dining room and associetd jobs / tasks - back to work for a rest soon...!

Sabbatical Days 17-24 Riding pretty much plus some other stuff!

Title says it all I think?!

So rides in numbers were:
Weds - 56.79 miles
Thurs - 52.48 miles
Fri -  56 miles (with Simon)
Sat 29.81 miles
Sun - NO RIDE (boo!)
Mon - 43.56 miles & 17.44 miles
Tues 29.76 miles
Weds 24.32 miles & 25.73 miles

Posh bike getting a serious workout, as you can see plus did 1 ride on the Scott, but need to get the freewheel checked as it isn't (freewheeling that is). - Cutting a groove of getting up before the lark and doing a couple of hours thus keeping the day free - oh sabbatical I love thee..!

Met with Wouter @ Kings last Thursday - a good chat and catch up, before he moves on to a New Frontiers Church in Peterborough. Visited St Catherine's on Sunday, fairly traditional service, but know some of the people there so not too painful, also visited Andy Jones' holiday Club in Wymondham on Tuesday - great effort in preparation - a Chocolate factory with very cool cyclone machine (think grab a grand cubicle or crystal dome) loads of helpers too - hmm perhaps I could get some tips on team attraction / retention...

A week left, with nothing formal planned except LT foundations and a visit to Kings Mile Cross on Sunday (oh and maybe a ride or two as well...?!)

Sabbatical Day 16 - Riding in the wind & selling stuff

Another day, another ride!

Despatched wife and daughter off to work and college course placement, then it was just the boys remaining. Precipitation overnight made it look iffy, but i went with the BBC's forecast and went out with the aim of completing 50miles on the posh bike.

18mph maintained or first hour and a half to the mid-way point (27miles), then I turned into the wind and almost stopped! - 1 hour 52mins for the other half of the ride.

After devouring a hearty lunch, someone rang about the table and chairs on Gumtree, and popped round later and paid for them to pick up on Weds, an also expressed an interest in our dresser unit, so may even sell that tomorrow too?

The wanderers returned, and following a quick tea, I went out for an hour or so for a coffee with a mate, then arrived back to a conundrum of a cake that had been baked but no box big enough - so off to Asda to buy one - as ever go for one thing buy 5 things - ho hum...