Glancing back, moving forward

Happy New Year!!!

First of all tale of the tape for 2011:
Total Distance: 10,481 miles
Ave Speed: 17.09 mph
Total Calories: 620219kcal
Total Duration: 613hrs 19mins
Total no of rides: 408
Best cycling experience: Tracking the ToB on the East Anglian stage (135 miles) and seeing Cav lead the bunch home or alternatively the Tour of the Peak.

As is traditional it's time to set a few targets, mileage wise I am not going to aim for anything in particular although based on what I know I have no reason to expect any less than 8-9000miles covered again this year.
Fred Whitton All Seasons Challenge
Norwich 100 (usual suspects!)
Norwich to Cambridge
Cycle around Norfolk in a day
plus anythng else that crosses my path

Target achieved!

10,000 reasons to be cheerful - I've done it  and a whole 5 weeks ahead of the year end!

So there I was cycling home this evening, knowing that my aim of cycling 10,000 miles this calendar year was going to be reached and surpassed, as i arrived home - Where were the crowds of well wishers, the trumpet fanfare, the across street banner to herald my arrival? - Sadly they were absent, but actually the important thing was that I knew, and my legs were pretty aware of it too!

I even succumbed to a celebratory beer!

So a few facts:

• 10,000 miles equates to roughly 16,093 kilometres for all you Europeans.
• 10,000 miles in 330 days works out at an average of cycling just over 30miles for every calendar day this year!
• Actual cycling time has been just under 584 1/2 hours or 24.3ish days!
• Average Speed just over 17mph.
• Total number of individual rides - 383, ranging from a couple of miles to the longest day at 135miles
• Over 574,210 Calories (kcal) burned 

Now what challenge to do next...? (other than having a tilt at 11,000 miles before new year?)

Derbyshire again...

Winnats Pass from the top!

ToTP was not enough, i needed another hill fix before the year was out so coincidentally combined with a mid week break to the Peaks, i smuggled my bike onto the back of the car when no one was looking and hey presto another crack at Winnats Pass and Mam Tor was on the cards.

The plan
get up early two mornings running, and get out do a circuit of 20miles or so involving some hills.
The execution
Got up early - check
managed 20ish miles each day - check,
Hills? - well I did do a circuit involving Winnats and Rushup Edge before descending Mam Tor the first day but had to pause for breath going up Winnats, my lungs were cooked!
Day 2 was a flat spin around the valley floor befor finishing with a blast up and then back down Mam Tor - fared slightly better here other than losing my back light on the descent!

Posh bike has now been effectively mothballed until Spring, no more daylight commuting for me so out comes the Scott, and a subtle reminder I need to get that singlespeed conversion done on the trek too...?!

PS Circa 9200 miles completed ytd!!!!

PPS Simon has suggested a crack at the Fred Whitton next year - ouch, I can feel my legs already - 9 or 10 lake district passes, all of them in the 100 greatest climbs in the UK book by Simon Warren - its gonna hurt!

We are the Champions...of the WORLD!

Q:- Copenhagen, September 25th 2011, circa 3pm - where were you?

A:- Watching Cav and Team GB absolutely boss the Worlds Road Race from End to End, and end up with Cav as World Champ - Bring it On!

Tour of Britain - by bike!

OK, almost an oxymoron i guess as what else would you travel on for the Tour of Britain but what i mean is I set myself the challenge of cycling from home to the start to mingle with the bikes and riders in Bury St Edmunds and watching the peleton depart, before cycling onto Sandringham to soak up the atmosphere and see the finish and then cycle home again! 135 miles in under 8 hours = a great day out!!!!

See Route / Details HERE

Below is "Toby" busting some moves in the finish strait.

The Future's Bright, the Future is...British?

Yep that's right British Cycling is on the up - quite literally!

Wiggo & Froome finishing 3rd and 2nd respectively in the Vuelta is no mean feat, and both of their individual consistent performances across the three weeks bode well for the future.

Team Sky after maybe a slow start have a pretty decent palmares for 2011 now, and who knows when the ToB restarts tomorrow after todays stage cancellation due to extreme winds, can Geraint Thomas or Swifty get the overall there too?

Personally my mileage continues to climb and will break through the 8000 mile barrier this week - especially as I shall be tracking Stage 7 of the ToB by bike - cycling Norwich to Bury St Edmunds, Bury St Edmunds to Sandringham, and then Sandringham back to Norwich - 130 miles in a day - Come on!

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...