dynamo duncan

Never Ride Without a Helmet!!!!

2011-04-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

I was in Bognor last Wednesday with my son and two of his mates. It was his 11th birthday and we had a day of activities planned (Cafe, Bowling, Crazy Golf, Swimming, Pizza). They had been in Bognor since the previous evening having a sleepover and had beeen up since 5:00 am.

At 8:00 am they wanted to cycle the half mile along the promenade to the cafe. As we only had three helmets I insisted they wore them and I went without. Half way along the promenade one of the boys rear wheels came in contact with my front wheel and I went over the handlebars and head butted the tarmac (without the benefit of a helmet).

I remember seeing the wheels coming together and knowing what was going to happen then going into a dream state, floating thinking I am going to hit the tarmac any minute. It never happened? I couldn't see, hear or move and the only sensations were consciousness and floating.

Fortunately there was an off duty paramedic and a doctor walking along at that time who were there immediately and immobilised me, dealt with the boys and called an ambulance.

My steel Bennotto is a write off with the front forks and front wheel completely out of shape.

Slowly my senses came back. First hearing then feeling (ouch) then sight and movement. I could feel the blood dripping down my head.

The ambulance arrived, put me in a collar then used a special stretcher to scoop me off the ground. They then put me in a device that moulded to my shape and immobilised me. I was carted off sirens blaring to St Richards hospital in Chichester. There I was immediately assessed, x-rayed, doped etc. There was some talk of shipping me off to a specialist head trauma unit in Southampton but that never came about. The verdict was that nothing was broken and that there was nothing they could do but give me painkillers.

To make matters worse my wife was in the US on business. She telephoned at 8:30 am to wish my son a Happy Birthday. She got a very upset little boy crying because Dad had just been carted off in an ambulance. This obviously upset her business trip and at that time there was very little information.

In the afternoon the hospital released me to a neighbour who collected me. He had arranged for one of the boys mothers to collect us all and bring us back to London. By this stage I was stiff, sore, drugged up but reasonably awake.

The following day I awoke with concussion. I was sick, headache and spaced. I struggled to the doctors at the end of the road who told me to go straight to casualty. I got a cab to Kingston hospital where I was reasonably quickly admitted to the Major Trauma Unit and a CT scan of my head was done in between bouts of being sick and bringing up blood. A few hours on a drip, lots of drugs (pain, anti-inflammatory, anti-nausea, the usual) they told me I was staying overnight unless someone collected me.

There was family negotiations and my brother from St Albans who was working in The City came down and collected me and took me back to my home and stayed the night. My wife arrived back from the US the following morning.

I have been in bed ever since. The world is still spinning and if my heart rate goes up everything spins faster and throbs. The bruises are beginning to fade (the black eye and yellow shoulder), the scabs are drying out in my hair, and I can get short spells of consciousness which get longer day by day. The hospital says only time will tell.

In the meantime I am home not earning, not able to drive or do chores, not able to walk to the shops, and worst of all not able to enjoy the sunshine as I am shut in a dark bedroom asleep when my head lets me.

Monday I got up and overdid it and Tuesday was a nightmare . I stayed in bed all day. Wednesday was been better and Thursday has again improved. The doctor has signed me off for a fortnight telling me to come back if it hasn't cleared and he will issue another note.

I was supposed to be having an operation on my shoulder next week (rotator cuff) which I have been waiting for since January, however, I the aneathetist says that in view of the concussion and my health the operation will be deferred so I will have to continue to bear that pain for longer.

The Moral: Never ride without a helmet even if it is only to the end of the road!!!

Weekend Feb 12th and 13th

2011-02-28T13:08:00.000-08:00

On Friday my son was following the traditions of the family and went to casualty as he fell over in the school playground and has hurt his arm. Not the first time he has been ther and wobn't be the last I suspect. They discharged him without x-raying him. I think he may have cracked a bone as he is still complaining about it but we will see. We strapped it up with an elasticated bandage over the weekend. Not much they can do about it really I suppose, just wait for it to heal.

Saturday I myself was at the hospital at 8:00 am for an MRI on my shoulder (it has been sore for a month), then I went to watch my son play football (they lost again as they have every match bar one this seaon), then after lunch we went down to Bognor. There we did badminton at the local leisure centre with friends then had fish and chips around our friends house. Not a late night.

Sunday I got out on the bike (the Benotto) about 8:15 am. I have put the Ultegra front wheel on the Benotto rather than bother to change the front tyre after a puncture a fortnight ago. You might remember that the Ultegra back wheel was mashed May last year on the HHH when the chain broke and the derailleur went into the spokes, so the front has been sitting around on its own in the garage. Sunday was wet and windy but I went out through Arundel, over Bury Hill then on through Pulborough and along to the Toat Café. I didn’t stop but turned around and rode home along the A29 past Fontwell Race Course. 37 Miles in total (59 km 600 metre of climb). Despite the weather I enjoyed the ride but was a bit tired when I got home.

Talking about Benotto's, I was watching the Paris Roubaix 1974 ("A Day in Hell") from YouTube whilst turboing the other day and was pleased to see film of a team using Benottos in that race.

As I was going up Bury hill from the Pulborough side my phone started ringing. It is 14%+ hill and I wasn’t going to answer it as I was struggling on the hill, especially as the Benotto has a standard set up rather than a compact. It kept on ringing again and again all the way up the hill. I stopped at the top and sorted it out. My son had sent a text on my other phone to his mates in Bognor and they were trying to get in touch with him. It was very distracting and annoying when I was trying to concentrate.

Sunday lunchtime we went to a local Conservative party drinks event in a posh house on one of the private estates. Not our usual thing but our friends in Bognor are wheeler dealers and go because of the contacts to be made there. We tagged along. The local MP was hosting the bash in a private house and it was actually very pleasant chatting to the locals on local issues. The kids were well behaved and won a few raffle prizes which kept them happy. There was quite a lot of banker bashing in the discussion. I kept my mouth shut for once but The wife asked a question.

We then went to our friends for a nice roast lunch then left Bognor at 17:00 to drive home.

Esplanade escapades

2011-02-02T13:28:00.000-08:00

Despite it being my wedding anniversary on Sunday I left the Bognor house at 9:20after handing over the compulsory aniversary card card. The ground still had a frost.

I was on an old steel Benotto which I bought secondhand in Bermuda twelve years ago. I was quite nervous about the roads which were in an icystate but it was sunny (and windy).

It was nice in the sun out by Arundel and the sun was on the majority of the road (don't you hate it when the road is shiny and you are not sure if it is ice or water). The only problem was the biting headwind but I consoled myself with the fact that it would be a tailwind on the wayback.

I went over the top of Bury Hill and gingerly down the North face as the sun wasn't on the road that side then I went along the A29 to the round about the Bury side of Pulborough where I turned around and headed back.

I was just thinking about stopping for a gel and a drink of electrolyte when "POP", my front tyre punctured spectacularly. Fortunately I was just drifting along so I stopped safely. There was a footpath and I had a spare inner tube and my hands were warm enough so I fixed the tyre(despite the 20 year old pump not working properly) and set off again.

With the tail wind I got up Bury Hill OK and rode down the A29 intoBognor. 33 miles acomplished.

I met my wife and son and a Bognor friend and his kids on the sea front where they were riding. We rode to a park then the kids struggled back against the wind.

On the way back we stopped and I couldn't get my cleats to release from the pedals (Speedplay) and did a slow motion fall on the Bognor esplanade in front of loads of people walking in the sunshine. Lots of concerned people came over to see if I was OK. I had to take my shoes off to get off the bike as lying down I didn't seem able to get off the bike.

I cleaned and oiled the cleats when I got home. They were full of mud from the park.

Last night I compared the ride details from the Garmin against the same ride a fortnight ago and was pleased to see I was a couple of minutes faster (not significant over two hours), but I think that was probably the conditions as two weeks ago the wind was a headwind on the return leg and was stronger.

Is it a sign?

2010-12-14T13:25:00.000-08:00

My 30 year old Raleigh Record is permanently strapped into my turbo. Some time ago the front derailleur cable on the bike snapped through age and rust and having had sweat dripped on the cable for many years. I did not bother to do anything about it as I rarely use the big ring whilst turboing.

Last night I was 65 minutes into my turbo in the kitchen when The Wife arrived home from work. No sooner had she entered the kitchen than the rear derailleur cable snapped effectively stopping my turbo session.

I wonder if this is a sign:

Is The wife a witch and magic'd the cable to break because I was turboing in the kitchen against regulations
Is the the higher being telling me the bike has had enough and it is time to get a new bike
Is the higher being telling me it is time to give up cycling
Is someone reminding me I should clean and maintain the bike regularly including the cables

Off I went at lunchtime to find a bike shop in the city stocking cables for 30 year old bikes. I got the cables at Cycle Surgery behind Middlesex Street. £7 the pair, a bit more than I had expected but City prices I suppose.

This evening I replaced the cables and we are up and running again (ahh, no new bike) and I did another 20 miles on the turbo in the kitchen before The Wife got home from work.

Cote D'Azure - Nice to see you, to see you Nice

2010-11-23T11:22:00.000-08:00

A few of us bold Guildford Pelotooners ventured down to Nice over the weekend of November 12th to 14th to catch the last of the sun and tick off a few more Cols. When asking around we were made aware of Claire Scrutton who operates a cycle guiding business from Nice under the name of Cyclecotedazur.com. We were in contact with Claire who agreed to guide us for the long weekend we planned (Friday to Sunday).

The planning went well; we all managed to get flights on BA Miles. We identified (with Claire’s help) a suitable hotel at a good price. All set – not quite. After booking the flights we discovered that BA now counts your bike box as luggage, charging you £37 for each extra bag. Mike and I decided that one extra bag would do between us and it was booked in his name. Also, by the time we got to book the hotel it was fully booked – what was going on? We didn’t realize it was also the weekend of the Nice marathon. Back to the drawing board with the hotel but after much angst we booked an alternative, which in the end proved adequate.

With a week to go my brother Craig discovered he had to be in Belgrade on the Thursday we were meant to travel and Mike discovered he was scheduled to be in Edinburgh. As the flight to Nice was from Heathrow at 20:00 I would have trouble getting from work to home and to the airport on time through the rush hour traffic. Replanning was required.

Mike was booked to get back to Heathrow from Edinburgh in good time but not enough time to get his luggage from home. In the circumstances he brought his bike and the luggage to my house on the Monday night. On the Wednesday morning I drove to my dentist appointment in Teddington then on to Heathrow and left my car in the short stay (great deal from the Heathrow website, Wednesday to Sunday in the short stay for £67 rather than the usual price of £248 and against £48 in the long stay). I then travelled to work on the Heathrow express (only to get to Paddington and the Circle, District and Hammersmith and City lines were down and Oxford Circus was shut for a security alert, so I arrived at work somewhat late that morning).

On the Thursday that we were travelling London was hit by the back end of the recent hurricanes in the Caribbean. There was much wind and rain and flights into and out of Heathrow were delayed. My brother managed to rebook his flights to go directly from Belgrade via Vienna to Nice where he arranged to hire a bike. I got to the airport using the Heathrow Express in good time and unloaded the two bikes and luggage from my car. That only left Mike who was stranded at Edinburgh when he should have already landed at Heathrow. The only good thing was that the flight to Nice was also delayed.

So there I was at Heathrow BA Check-in with two SciCon bike boxes and a roll bag as well as my hand luggage. Mike was somewhere between Edinburgh and London (3 hours late at this point) and the check in for the Nice flight was about to close. BA said once the check in closed if I wasn’t checked in I would lose my flight, and they could not check Mike in without him being there, notwithstanding the fact that he was on a BA flight at the time. I had to make a decision, was I going and what was I going to do about Mike’s bike and the extra bag which was booked and paid for in his name? BA had no sympathy. I would have to check in and pay excess baggage for the bag and second bike. Mike would have to take his chances on a flight the next morning as the flight was closed and full. The only good thing was that BA would book him on the next available flight as it was them that made him miss his flight.

At the BA excess baggage payment desk they had some problem and overcharged me, then refunded me, then decided they could transfer the extra bag from Mike’s booking to mine and in the confusion I am still not sure how much I was charged, however, eventually both bikes and the bag disappeared into the luggage system and I had three baggage receipts for them. I then went through security to departures from where I texted Mike for when he landed and updated his partner at home advising her he would probably be home that night. I also spoke with my brother who was enjoying a lonely dinner in Nice.

With 10 minutes to the delayed boarding time (an hour and a half late) I was in the Nokia shop at Terminal 5 dribbling over the new Nokia N8 and C7 and trying to justify to myself that £350 on a new phone would be acceptable to the Finance Committee back home (unlikely and I knew that really, but what harm can window shopping do?) when my phone rang. Mike had landed, finally and this safely distracted me from he phones. He had already been to the transit desk and they had given him a boarding pass for the flight, the only problem was that he had to go out, check his extra bag in (that was supposed to be left in my car in the car park after repacking), then come back through security, would he have time?

A few minutes later I was wandering the wrong direction towards the gate when I bumped into Mike going the correct way. He shepherded me to the gate and we boarded finally.

The in flight food was a packet of biscuits and a drink. Lots of carbs (not) ready for the ride in the morning which I had texted Claire to defer from the 8:30 am start until 10:00.

After an uneventful flight we arrived at Nice just after midnight. Believe it or not all the luggage also arrived. We went for a bus to Nice town centre and after an anxious wait (were the buses still running at that time?) we caught a bus to town (euro 7.50 total for both of us and our luggage).

The bus dropped us at 1:30 am on the Nice seafront. We dragged the two bike boxes and two luggage bags as well as two rucksacks through the street, the wheels on my bike box making a terrible racket. We arrived at the hotel to find a fire engine with flashing lights outside, the foyer was full of firemen and the hotel had no power! After a few minutes the firemen managed to restore the power and drifted off. There was no English speaking receptionist so we telephoned my brother’s mobile hoping he was in the room and would wake up, guide us to the correct room and let us in. No answer. Ring again, no answer. Then he managed to wake up and telephone us to tell us back to tell us which room we were in. Finally we got to bed at 2:00am.

Friday Morning

We woke tired in the morning (Friday) and whilst my brother disappeared to collect his hire bike, Mike and I go ours out of the SciCon boxes and built the bikes before all going to breakfast. Then it was off to the Nice promenade to meeting Claire. The weather was sunny and bright. After leading us the wrong way initially we found Claire. Off came the leggings and jackets. Shirt sleeves were the order of the day.

We did 85 km in the sun stopping for lunch at a café where Café du Cycliste (www.cafeducycliste.com) are based. They organise weekend rides from the café and are bringing out a clothing range next year. I am not sure whether they came down to talk to us or to chat up Claire (the latter I suspect).

It was a short ride and not that challenging with 800 metres of climb. Even so, that evening we had dinner at a local restaurant recommended by Claire and we were in bed and asleep by 8:00 pm – shattered we were.

Saturday

Saturday was planned as the big day. 2500 metres of climb over 120 km. Again a nice day and we were joined by another guy, Peter, an ex Cat 1 racer who lives in London but has his weekend flat in Nice – the benefit of bankers’ bonuses I think. After cycling out of Nice and on going up the first hill my chain began to jump and at the top we examined it to discover that one of the links had broken. This is the second Shimano Durace chain this year that this has happened to me. The last time the chain caught the derailleur, pulled it into the wheel and wrecked the derailleur and the wheel at great expense. This time I was luckier. Peter had a chain tool with him (he had a saddle bag as big as mine and I am often accused of bringing the kitchen sink) and removed the link and the chain lasted the rest of the weekend.

[Since getting back to blighty I have had my bike into Corridori who discovered I have a bent tooth on my middle front ring which may have contributed to the chain problems.]

We warmed up on the Col de Braus (10.3 km Avg 6.4% 662 metres) stopping in Sospel for lunch outside in the sun at a café / patisserie. We then attempted the Col de Turini. Boy was that tough, with 24 Km uphill at average 5.2% 1244 metres. Other than letting me stop for a gel at the village half way up Claire was surreptitiously easing me up the hill not letting me use my Ramblers association membership. We arrived some 25 minutes after the others and rolled down the other side to the village. When we arrived we were greeted in the Café by the others with their war stories including the fact that Mike and Peter had come off on the descent on gravel and were displaying sore looking tarmac tattoos through their torn Assos shorts. I was also greeted by the remark that my thighs were bulging as if I had been weight lifting, and that is what they felt like.

That night Claire recommended another restaurant but we were tired and could not be bothered to walk that far so we found a restaurant near the hotel. Half way through dinner in walks Claire with Peter and his girlfriend. What a coincidence.

A slightly later night that night, we finally turned the lights out just after ten pm. Party animals we are not.

Sunday

Our flights home was scheduled for Sunday night and we had arranged a late check out from the hotel so we could get a full days riding.

The main concern on Sunday was that it was the conclusion of the F1 season and it was not obvious who would win. How could we ride and get value out of the day, as well as see the race which was scheduled for lunchtime?

Claire was meeting us at our hotel as the sea front promenade was closed because the Nice marathon was taking place. She turned up slightly late accompanied by a guy and a girl. Unfortunately the girl had had a puncture on the way which had caused the delay. She decided that she had had enough already and said her farewells. The guy, Rob, was an Australian living and working for an IT company in Nice. He was a good rider.

We left Nice and cycled along the coast. We missed out the Col D’Eze (not sure why?) and went along to Monaco where we cycled across the F1 grid and up the start straight and hill to the casino. We then went on beyond Monte Carlo to the base of the Madone. We are told that Lance Armstrong did the Madone (which is 13.3 km 920 metres Avg 7%) in close to 33min and his record has only been beaten once in 2007 or 2008 by Dean Martin of the Garmin Team who did 31 minutes. I didn’t think we would be able to touch that but Craig was ready to give it a go.

The base of the Madone is very steep going up to about 17% then leveling then going steep again. As you get higher it flattens out to a steady 8%. Craig, rob and Mike shot off and left me on my own. I knew Claire was behind me (?) but I had my own demons. It is amazing climbing from sea level up 920 metres looking back down (yes, I did look up from the tarmac onece or twice).

Half way up there is a village called St Agnes where you need to take a turning to the summit. I stopped here for five minutes to have a gel and wait for Claire (as I wasn’t sure I had the right turning). After five minutes she hadn’t appeared so I went on alone just hoping I had got it right.

At the summit Rob was waiting for me. The other two had already gone on to La Turbie. Rob had had a text from Claire saying she was unwell and would be going a different route and would meet us on our way down the other side.

Mike and Craig had made the top in 1 hour 9 minutes, however, whilst Craig had stopped at St Agnes for 4 minutes, as Mike arrived at St Agnes, Craig and Rob remounted and pushed on not giving Mike any time to stop. He followed them to the top and arrived more or less at the same time as the other two. My time was nearer 1 hour 19 minutes.

Rob and I rolled down the other side and we met Craig amd Mike in La Turbie. We found a pizzeria with a television and we were just in time to watch the start of the F1 Grand Prix. Believe it or not the pizzeria had run out of pizza dough – disaster. Fortunately they had an extensive menu and we ordered lunch.

We left the restaurant before the race had finished and proceeded down the mountain. We met Claire a bit further down and cycled back to Nice.

After saying our farewells to Claire and Rob we got back to our hotel room just in time to watch the last few laps of the race. Well done Sebastian Vettel. We then packed our bikes, showered and checked out.

It was then a case of dragging our luggage the 500 metres to the train station (my wheels making the terrible racket again) to catch the bus to the airport. This time we took a local bus rather than the express and it cost us Euro 1 each. Bargain.

We arrived at the airport really early. We planned this as we knew the flight would be full of marathoners and we didn’t want to be bounced off. We checked in, had the mandatory Quality Q burger and brownie and caught our flight.

We arrived at Heathrow on time, the luggage all arrived (never ceases to amaze because when you really need it the luggage is always delayed / lost) and we found the car without a problem. I was home in bed at 11:00 pm after dropping Mike and his bike at home.

Good weekend to be thoroughly recommended. I can see us going back next year to tick off a few more Cols. Thanks Claire

End.

Squash - a prodigy?

2010-08-09T13:41:00.000-07:00

My ten year old son has been nagging me to take him to play squash for some weeks but I didn't have a second racket. A couple of weekends ago I managed to buy a titanium squash racket at a car boot sale (for £2.00, hardly used).

On Friday night last I took him to Cheam Baths to play squash for the first time. To start with he was trying to play tennis (using his shoulder rather than using his wrist) and couldn't hit the ball. By the end of an hour he was not only rallying but trying to bounce the ball around the corners with some success. He keeps telling everyone he nearly beat me, it is embarrassing because in a couple of weeks he may well be in that position.

At the end of one and a half hours playing we left but he is keen to play again.

As a result I took him down to the New Malden Tennis and Squash club on Saturday morning. They have county and national juniors there and do coaching for the youngsters on Saturday and Sunday mornings. If I coach him he will be as bad as me. If he has got any talent then at least there they will draw it out of him and he will learn to play properly.

He is desperate to play Big G and my other mates because he is sure he can beat them. All I can say is if he does decide to accept coaching they had better watch out.

Speedplay Vs Look Keo

2010-08-02T13:17:00.000-07:00

The winter months and the various falls I have had from my bicycle over the years has obviously had a negative effect on my three year old Look Carbon Ti pedals.

On Saturday Big G and I were heading to Box Hill for afternoon tea, as you do on a Saturday afternoon. As we passed through Leatherhead my Look Carbon Ti pedals decided this was the time to give up the ghost and promptly the carbon of the left pedal disintegrated (at least it happened then rather than two weeks previously on the Tourmalet).

Subsequent examination shows the pedals were probably damaged hitting the ground and that damage got worse with use (they had been clicking for a few weeks and I assumed it was the bearings).

As fortune would have it "Cycle Works" in Leatherhead High Street re-opened Saturday after their ram raiding incident and subsequent fire and was only a short walk from where my pedals gave up the ghost. We made our way there. It is an impressive shop of two shop units newly refurbished and with the very latest shiny gear in stock. Well worth a visit if you are passing.

I had been thinking about Speedplay pedals for some time and there they were on display next to the Look pedals in the shop. I had used them in Australia a couple of years ago. They have the advantage of having less height that the Look pedals, you can buy "Coffee Shop Covers" for them (Look have discontinued the covers after someone took out litigation against them after slipping whilst wearing the covers), and they have a metal plate that means it is difficult to wear them out. The mechanism is in the cleat rather than in the pedal which is unusual. They have not been that popular in the UK having limited distribution outlets but that is changing.

Cycle Works had none of the cheaper Look pedals, only the more expensive ones, but they did have Speedplay Zeros in stock. The owner had good things to say about them and said he used them himself (what else would he say when I showed an interest in the Speedplays, what a salesman, silver tongued and I fell for it). I decided now was the time to change so I bought the Speedplays which he promptly fitted to the bike and my shoes explaining as he did it what he was doing and how the adjustments work, even making sure the centre of force was in the same place as on my Look pedals.

No charge for the fitting even thought it took him fifteen minutes whilst his wife and 3 month old baby waited to go to coffee. Very nice man.

We then proceeded, me £110 poorer, up Box Hill for coffee and cake (G had the bread pudding whilst I had the Victoria Sponge).

Difficult to explain the expenditure to The Wife when I got home but even she could appreciate the situation (but not the cost or the timing) when I showed her the broken pedal.

Chapeau

Etape Number 3 Completed

2010-07-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday (July 18th) I finished the 2010 Etape. My third attempt and my third finish.

The course was 112.5 miles over three mountains. It took me 11 hours 13 minutes. The course was that done by the professionals last Thursday where Schleck just beat Contador by half a bike length and they both were way ahead of the peloton.

This is a link to the pictures of me suffering.

www.cstewart.net/Duncan2010etape.html

I had the pleasure of crossing the line with the elimination van driving directly behind me (I was one minute inside the elimination time), I also had the pleasure at the 95 mile mark in the race of a 30 minute sleep in one of the tunnels in a gorge, then going on and stopping at a cafe for a milkshake at the bottom of the Tourmalet (the last mountain 10 miles from the finish) whilst I watched other competitors ride by and another ten minutes kip on the side of the Tourmalet before finishing the race one minute before the elimination time.

There were three mountains this year and as usual I walked on all three climbs and my cleats (on the bottom of the cycling shoes) were so worn that they didn't fit into my pedals once I got to the top of the last mountain. That is the third year the Etape has cost me a set of cleats.

I have worked out that it took me one hour 45 minutes to go the 19 kilometres from Argeles Gazost (the 90 mile mark, I was there at 2:10 pm) to the Cafe at the base of the Tourmalet (at the 100 mile mark, I left there just before 4:00 PM). This did include a 30 minute sleep by the side of the road in a road tunnel and a milkshake and rest in the cafe. Almost as long as it took me to get from there to the top of the Tourmalet (16 KM uphill at average 8% gradient).

And this year (unlike last year) they did publish pictures of me walking (note in one of the pictures I am walking in my socks up the Tourmalet carrying my shoes acquiring blisters on the bottom of my feet and still my cleats were ruined!).

It was a long drive back from the Pyrenees (900 miles) last Monday with long traffic jams at Poitiers and in Paris. We missed our 19:50 ferry and just managed to catch the 21:30 ferry after paying a 13 euro supplement. We left at 7:00 AM and got home at midnight. I was in work on the Tuesday as normal but it all caught up with me over this weekend and I was in bed early and up late.

Still tired now

July 8th JP Morgan Corporate Challenge

2010-07-09T14:39:00.000-07:00

Not that I am competitive but in the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge last night I came:

2000th out of 11494 finishers,
22nd out of 63 Grant Thornton runners
4:26 minutes / seconds behind the fastest GT runner
8:41 minutes / seconds behind the fastest overall runner

This on the back of not having taken a step in my running shoes since last October. I think the last time I did the event was some 10 years ago and in those days I could do sub 20 mins.

My brain was telling my body it still expected a sub 20mins performance but my body rebelled and I got around in 25:12 (5.6kilometres). I have stiff legs today (and a bit of a sore head; not sure if that was the running, the heat (it was in the high 20's), or the trip tothe pub afterwards)

Still respectable for a 50 year old bloke who is not running regularly Ithink.

Now for the Etape!!!

June 22nd 2010 Who gravelled the road in Richmond Park?

2010-06-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

Saturday I did 48 miles in the Surrey Hills with Big G. He hasn't been training much recently and has dropped out of the Etape even though he has the best number of any of the Guildford Peloton this year. We stopped at the tea shop at box hill to catch up on life, the universe and everything.

I cycled to St Albans on Sunday. I don't know why but the 33 miles was like cycling in treacle. I used my granny cog on numerous occasions and there was only 300 metres of climbing. It took me 2 hours 20 minutes even though I was on the A41 dual carriageway (it was like riding on the M1) some of the way

I don't know if it was the 20 miles turbo spinning Thursday followed by three reps of 5 X 1.5 minutes flat out in a heavy gear total 20 miles turbo Friday, followed by 47 miles and 1100 metres climbing Saturday afternoon in the Surrey Hills (surely all that would not make my legs tired?); or just that there was a raging headwind from the North against me the whole way.

Monday I had a well deserved rest day.

Tuesday I was back in the garage on the threshing machine doing reps again which meant this evening when I managed to get home early enough from work to get to Richmond Park my legs were tired and the four laps were done at a steady pace.

Who has gravelled the road in Richmond Park? It is appalling. Loose gravel all over the road meaning that the surface isn't good to ride, you need to be careful not to slip, and the dust as cars go by is like riding in a dust storm. I hope this is only temporary. I bet a few cars are getting damaged with the stones being thrown up.

With all these short rides I am going to be really good for the first 25 miles of the Etape, the the rest will be a horrible mess.

Weekend June 13th 2010 Turbo, Scouts Fair and Surrey Hills

2010-06-13T11:44:00.001-07:00

My brother is out in Pau training over the Etape course with Pyrenean Mountainsports. He has trained with them before and really likes their friendly atmosphere. They are planning to ride the whole course in one day.

My mate M has just had a new baby (well, his wife has) and so he has been a bit tied up recently, others of the Guildford Peloton are on various training camps, races / sportives or looking after their own new offspring (I thought cycling was supposed to reduce male fertility, however, four of the Guildford Peloton have had new babies recently, obviously whilst the cyclist has been out training the milkman has been busy).

This weekend was going to be difficult for me to train as I had the 1st Old Malden Scouts Summer Fair on Saturday. With this in mind I settled myself in the garage Fiday night for a two hour turbo.

Having decided at last that I ought to start my training for the 2010 Etape I have recently been spending quality time in the garage with my 1990 threshing machine (turbo trainer). During those dark hours alone (when even the mice are leaving the area from the noise) the mind goes to strange places (seeing as I don't have a DVD player and numerous series of Jail Break like some Guildford Peloton members to keep me amused).

By the time I had finished my session at 10:00 pm The Wife was off to bed leaving me alone to get my dinner and cool down before getting some sleep.

Saturday morning I was on the village green from 7:15 am and got home at 6:15 pm shattered after loading and unloading vans, setting up running and taking down stalls and then loading and unloading vans again. The weather was good and the fair was well attended. Initial indications are that we did ok.

Sunday morning I was still shattered, a bit of a zombie. I did jobs around the house until lunchtime. Then my wife and son were off to the farm with his cousins and I was released to go cycling. After a slow start I managed 58 miles and 1100 metres of climbing in the Surrey Hills.

My wife got me a new Garmin 705 for my birthday last week. Very nice it is too and I have heard so much about what they can do. This was the first time I have used it. It is not quite as user friendly as the Polar CS600 I usually use. I think I shall be asking some mates for help as I can't work out how to get the data off so it can be viewed.

Weekend June 6th 2010

2010-06-13T11:28:00.000-07:00

I rode to Bognor from Home on Saturday and stayed in Bognor with the family Saturday night. The trip down wasn't too bad and I covered the 58 miles in just under 4 hours without the shattered feeling I had the previous week.

I rode back from Bognor Sunday.

As I wasn't leaving until 4:15 pm Sunday afternoon and it takes 4 hours I didn't have time to ride all the way home. I knew my wife and son were leaving at 5:00 pm so I said to her that I would go ahead and when she caught me I would get into the car the rest of the way home.

There was a great tailwind which really helped me to spin the pedals and she didn't catch me for 28.8 miles (a couple of miles short of Ockley). I had averaged over 18 mph for that 28.8 miles (including climbing up the hill at Arundel).

It was nice knowing that she was behind me and really gave me confidence to push on to try to get as far as possible and knowing that I woud only be doing 20 to 30 miles. As I got nearer to Ockley I was getting worried that I would get to Ockley before she caught me then I would have to go up to Coldhabour and at that point I might as well ride all the way home.

When she caught me she said "How did you get so far, I have been looking out for you for the last 15 miles and I thought I had missed you".

May 31st Bank Holiday Weekend

2010-06-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

The Etape training isn't getting priority

Saturday I was busy with football trials at WSLL in the morning (we have 200 boys aged 10 and 11 who we have to fit into teams) and the 1st Old Malden 60th aniversary Scout camp in the afternoon and evening, along with a child who was very contrary. He is feeling the pressure of upcoming exams.

Sunday morning I cycled to Bognor (I am definitely not as fit as I have been in previous years and it took more out of me than it should have). I arrived just after lunch in time to collapse in front of the TV for the start of the Grand Prix. In the evening we went out to dinner at local pub where I had a big mixed grill with steak, gammon, fried egg etc (part of my specially controlled diet).

Bank Holiday Monday we went walking on the South Downs in the morning then we drove home to Worcester Park drop my wife off. I then drove up to MK to drop my son off at my parents (he is doing a football course at the MK Dons this week), had dinner there then stopped at my brothers in St Albans on the way home getting home at 11:00 pm.

Etape Caledonia May 16th 2010

2010-05-23T05:32:00.000-07:00

Etape Caledonia - Really good. I had been looking forward to itand after the disappointment of a mechanical in the Hampshire Hilly Hundred last week I really wanted it to be good.

We (myself, my brother, and four other Guildford Pelotoners) stayed in an activity cente in Aberfeldy which was about 15 miles from Pitlochry at the end of the Etape route.

We flew up Saturday morning toEdinburgh, hiring a car then driving up arriving at Aberfeldy at lunchtime. We checked in then assembled the bikes and rode the 15 miles to Pitlochry to register. We had lunch there then cycled the 15 miles back to Aberfeldy for cream teas.

In the evening we had dinner at the accomodation (Lasagne or Pasta Carbonara), went for a walk and turned in at 9:00 pm. The accomodation was one small room with three sets of bunk beds and a small en-suite. There were six of us in the room. Despite that, we all had a good nights sleep. Amazing

The following morning we were all up at 5:00 am, breakfasted and headed off in the cars with the bikes to the start line. The weather was supposed to be bad with heavy showers at lunchtime but it was cold but bright at that time.

The start was chaos but we got away at 7:30 am. The weather just got better as we went on. The sun came out and it warmed up (not a lot but a bit). It was a very scenic route with good roads (roads were closed to traffic during the race). The race was advertised as 81 miles with 2000 metres of climbing. It was wrong, there was only 1000 metres of climbing. My brother and three of my mates all managed between 4:01 hours and 4:05. I came in at 4:31 which isn't too bad considering my fitness. Another Pelotoner was nursing his brother, brother in law and mate around (not cyclists) and finished in 5:23 (he was capable of a faster time than me).

It was a really nice ride. Anyone could have finished it in those conditions.

Lunchtime we were back at the accomodation early afternoon packing away the bikes and listening to the Grand Prix when we heard on the news about the problems with the flights. We managed to talk to the car hire companies and change the drop off from Edinburgh Airport to Luton Airport (at extortionarte cost) and proceeded to drive back south past Hadrians Wall and to civilisation.

We got to Luton just after 10:00 pm and I got home to Surreyat 11:30 pm.

Good weekend. I will probably tempt fate and do it again next year

December 6th 2009 Wet Weekend

2009-12-08T12:52:00.000-08:00

The weekends are quite busy this year. This past weekend for example:

Friday I had an exam that was a real stinker. I managed to write for the whole three hours but it was a load of garbage. I recognised the concepts required to answer the questions but didn't manage to get the answers down on paper very coherently or in a structured manner. It was so bad that I came out of the exam straight to the pub on my own as I needed a drink and some time to think.

My son had had exams the previous Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday at school but he didn't have the option of going to the pub. Hopefully his exams went better than mine.

Saturday morning I had to get the Christmas decorations out of the loft then my son and I had football, a cup match. The weather held off and we won 5-0 (I say "we" because I am team assistant manager and I had to referee the second half). Hopefully that puts us through to the next round (initial stages of the cup are on league basis, only the latter stages are knockout). Of course we cycled there and back (two miles each way) on the recently acquired tandem.

Saturday PM was my usual weekly trip to the supermarket. Our weekly shop seems to be increasing dramatically in price all the time despite the fact we are being told there is deflation in the UK. I then had to get the ladder out to put up the external Christmas lights and clear out the guttering which has been overflowing for a few weeks and which my wife was complaining was wakiung her in the night. Our house is two storey and I was quite nervous up the ladder as two friends have fallen off ladders in the last month, one died leaving a wife and two daughters and the other was in hospital for a few days with a broken arm and concussion.

My son and my wife put up the decorations in the house including the tree (come December 1st my son insists we have the tree up)

Putting up decorations only serves to remind me to get started on the Christmas cards. Those of you who are used to getting Christmas cards from me early December are probably wondering where the cards are this year, well, time, work, exams, etc have defeated me so far but the writing of cards is on my to-do list. Please bear with me.

As for buying Christmas presents, there a couple of weeks yet before I have to start that. The longer you wait the less choice there is in the stores and so the easier it is to buy. That's my logic anyway. Actually the last couple of years my daughter has come out with me but I don't think that is going to happen this year.

I was supposed to go cycling with my mate Big G on Sunday but it was raining first thing so I took my son to the cinema with his cousin to see "Nativity" followed by a trip to Burger King. It is a good film. Made by the guys from "The Office" and very amusing and watchable.

After I got home I got permission from my wife and went out cycling on my own at 3:00 PM. I only went a total mileage of 27 miles but as I got to the furthest point, Box Hill, it got dark and it poured with rain. The tea shop was just shutting so I tempted fate and didn't stop. I didn't have any lights and it was a bit dangerous especially on the busy A217 dual carriageway but even though I was soaking and nervous of the traffic in the dark I was enjoying my first ride for a month. Got home for a quick shower then off to the evening service at the local church.

I couldn't have fitted anything else in if I had tried.

November 2009

2009-12-08T12:28:00.000-08:00

The formation and registration of the Guildford Peloton has been moving forward. Perhaps not at a pace which we would have liked, but it has been progressing. The thing that has moved on most is the website. It is still being hosted on our member developers personal site as we have still to register the official site but please do take a look and give us feedback.

http://www.zarpix.com/GP/index.htm .

We are still awaiting the final designs of the shirts, the registration of the site and registration with British Cycling but those will come.

News from afar. The Guildford Pelotoners Australian associate has emailed me today to announce that despite being over the half century in age he has just won a Category D race. His wife believes that his success should not be broadcast as he was racing against kids (teenagers and girls) but he maintains there was a good cross section in the race with a number of veterans, some older than him. He is over the moon as he says "this is the only time my his life I have won anything" and to crown it he won a AUD $30.00 prize. You can see his picture and winning margin here

http://www.randwickbotanycc.com/Results%202009/5%20Dec%202009/results_5_Dec_2009.htm

In the West Sutton Little League (WSLL) (football) this season my son got selected for the "Hunters". At the first match the team manager asked the parents for a volunteer to be his assistant manager. As usual muggins here was duly elected. When I accepted I assumed (wrongly) that the assistant manager just organised on the weeks the manager can't make it. No sooner had I accepted the post than I was informed that I was now on the executive committee and needed to attend the executive meetings, and that I had to go through a CRB (Criminal Records Board check or as it is commonly known "Peado" check). Fortunately I came out clear on that as I did when the Scouts Association appointed me on to the local group executive committee.

The Tandem has come in handy for the football, the pitches being two miles from home with a lack of parking. My son and I have been cycling up and back on the tandem. I'm on the front, he is the stoker. There is a constant barrage of noise coming from behind me as we cycle. Fortunately I can't hear a word of it and just continue oblivious as to whether he is complaining or conversing (the former I suspect from the tone). Big G has agreed to do a proper road test with me in the Surrey Hills when we get the weather and can coordinate our diaries. We will have the discussion as to who goes on front and who is the stoker on the day.

Anyway, football, the Hunters started the season badly loosing a few games and starting the season at the bottom of the table. Since then we have been improving with some draws and some good wins (last 4 games have been 4-0, 5-0, 2-2, 5-0) and have clawed our way back up to the middle of the table as we have begun to gel and gain in confidence. These results haven't been without a lot of effort by Damien our manager and lots of frustration as we usually get possession for 90% of the game but seem to lack the ability to convert possession or corners into goals or even score easy goals.

My contribution has been a lot of warming the boys up with skills practice before each match, shouting during the matches, and refereeing the matches (some one from each team referees one half of the game) not to mention a near nervous breakdown each week.

There are two games left this season (the season stops at Christmas and a new season starts in January) and a couple of wins will leave us in third place in the league and in the semi finals of the cup. We can't quite catch the two top teams who started the season well but they have found it more difficult each week to keep up their winning ways. If we keep improving it certainly looks good for us in the second half of the season which starts after Christmas and the league starts afresh.

Talking of football. After finishing her degree at Leicester De Montford University (achieving a 2.1 in English and getting a prize for her dissertation) my daughter has been working at Leicester City Football Club. She has been working on the gate, with the youngsters that go on the pitch with the team, organising the half time youngsters penalty competitions and leading a "FanZone" initiative. She seems to be enjoying it notwithstanding that she is paid by the hour at the minimum wage so Dad has had still to help with the rent. She is now quite an expert on The Championship as well as Formula One.

Cycling really has taken a back seat for a number of reasons. Work has got in the way, the weather has been dreadful, I can't get out Saturday mornings because of football, and my training partner M has had a medical condition preventing him from training. Big G has committed to doing the Etape next year and he and I have tried to coordinate our diaries but thus far whilst we have done the odd ride we have not been able to get out together on a regular basis (more my fault than his, he has managed to ride most weekends).

Whilst I still have not got an entry to the Etape next year a good number of the Pelotoners have through various means (Etape.org, Cyclomundo, Sports Tours to name but a few). We will probably have more members doing the race next year than any previous years (and if we had club vests we are still not big enough to be noticed over clubs like London Dynamo, Devere and Addiscombe).

Pootle on everyone

October 25th 2009 We will fight them on the beaches……….

2009-10-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing that annoys The Wife more than me, it is mice.

As if I have not got enough on my plate with retakes of the Securities Institute Fund Management exam/paper coming up in December, recovering from Swine Flu, re-applying for my own job, not to mention trying to get an entry to the 2010 Etape (Tourmalet here comes the Guildford Peloton), and considering the Guildford Peloton 2010 reccie and race arrangements, now we have a mouse invasion in our garage where my beloved Specialized Roubaix and Look 585 are stored and where my Orbit Routier II Tandem will be residing once my brother decides he has had enough of it (he did offer to deliver it this weekend but we weren’t around).

Every winter we get mice in our garage. The garage is integral to the house so is nice and warm and the mice get under the up-and-over door. They make nests chewing up any material, shoes, or packaging lying around or just chew and ruin whatever is in ther garage. Every winter we lay traps or poison and we establish a status quo. This year, however, they have come in greater numbers. Not only are they in the garage but I have seen them running up the back garden beside the fence in daylight!

I have been catching one or two mice a month over the summer but this weekend alone I have caught two (using only two traps). This evening I re-baited my traps after disposing of a body. A couple of hours later I was back in the garage sorting some recycling when I glanced behind the cabinet where one of my traps was located only to find the peanut butter bait was missing. I checked the other trap, the same? What was going on?

I went and got the peanut butter to re-bait and as I was laying the trap I saw a mouse waiting nearby watching me. He was so small I suspect that his weight was not enough to set off the traps. Now I don’t apply the best peanut butter for their delight and in the hope that they will suffer from Cholesterol related heart disease. I expect them to co-operate and set the bloody trap off even if that means they have to do a jig on the mechanism (if you are reading this in my garage Mr Mouse please take note).

What these mice don’t seem to understand is that if I don’t get rid of the mice The Wife will make me remove every single thing from the garage so that there is just bare walls, ceiling and floor, spring clean, get rid of anything which I am hoarding “in case it come in useful some time in the future”, and clean and tidy everything before anything is allowed back in the garage. Such an exercise is probably a minimum of a whole weekend’s work and will involve marital disharmony and a lot of expletives and injuries to my person as I clumsily move things in and out of the garage.

In order to avoid the need for the clear-out the anti-mouse campaign is going to be stepped up this week. I am going to be down at the hardware store first thing in the morning getting poison, traps, Napalm. I am also going to be ordering various electronic mice traps off of Amazon. One way or another I have to win this campaign. There will be no mercy or prisoners. Does anyone know how to call in US Airforce support for this one?

2010 Etape

2009-09-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

The summer break is now coming to an end and the minds of all good members of the Guildford Peloton are beginning to turn to next years Etape and the training (pain or pleasure?) this is going to require.

I have been searching the web to find out any rumours for the 2010 course. There are none that I can see but it does look like the course will be announced in the third week of October.

The AGM of the Guildford Peloton was an impromptu affair held at short notice a few weekends ago. Peter, the Captain, announced outside the Mucky Duck in Shere at 09:30 one Sunday morning the fact that the meeting was to take place at lunchtime that same day on the top of Box Hill (lets not get bogged down with the formality of 21 days notice in writing to all members at their last known registered address).

The urgent matter requiring the meeting was the matter of registering the club. There had been some dissidents to the name Guildford Peloton with an alternative name of The Picon Peloton being proposed, and so a discussion was held as to whether there really was any objection to the name. The Guildford Peloton was proposed and agreed.

In order to achieve registration with British Cycling a design for the club kit is required and the design was discussed and agreed. The Captain was asked to get in contact with his Graphic Designer friend to update the previous proposed design. Rob agreed to negotiate with the suppliers and arrange the order. We are all looking forward to receiving the new Guildford Peloton kit which I think should have been ordered by now (those of you who missed the email trail in this respect contact Rob who has taken on the role of Club Quartermaster).

In addition Mike agreed to get in touch with his friend to look at a club website.

I am supposed to get on with registering the Club which I will do once I get the final kit design in electronic form.

This was only my third ride (and in fact is my last ride) since the 2009 Etape, the other two only being 25 milers around Richmond Park and I must admit that by the time we got to the top of Box Hill I had done 42 miles and was shattered with my head in my hands as we held the meeting and therefore I may have missed a few things. In fact I left Box Hill after the meeting with Rob and was promptly dropped from his back wheel. He waited for me and I was dropped again before I waived him on and cycled home alone in a very leisurely manner. At least when I got home The wife was out shopping whereas poor Mike arrived home after curfew and was in trouble with his significant other who was waiting to go off to work.

Mike and I met at lunchtime today at Gourmet Burger in Spitalfields to chew the cud (or burger) and talk bikes. He has proposed that we need to resurrect the Box Hill Time Trials (an eight mile circuit around Box Hill raced on a handicap basis) to prompt the start of training and engender a bit of early winter enthusiasm. We need to propose a date in late October or early November for the first challenge. What do you think?

I recently bought a tandem and am looking for a stoker for the 2010 Etape . I saw a number of tandems in the 2009 Etape (they overtook me going up the Ventoux). I am assured by my brother (who has yet to release my tandem to me that he kindly picked up for me from Sheffield back in August) that my new (second-hand) Orbit Routtier II aluminium tandem is very comfortable. All applications to me.

Chapeau everybody

The Etape du Tour 2009

2009-08-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

Monday - Race Day and an early 4:00 AM breakfast. I got up earlier to put bikes on car.

We were on the road before 5:00 AM in the dark. There were six of us in two cars travelling in convoy with the bikes on top of the cars. On the way, I was leading, I took a wrong turning and ended up driving around a remote car park in the dark. The other car followed me. You can imagine the comments being made in that car as they puzzled as to what I was up to.

As we approach Montelimar the roads were already busy. Again I took a wrong turning and headed to Montelimar east, an industrial estate. This time the other car was a couple of cars back and didn't see us take the wrong turn. They took the correct route into Montelimar and found a car park. Once we realised that everyone was going the other way we turned around and headed into town. We found a car park and proceeded to unload. As we unloaded we saw our other car just across the car park - by fluke we had ended up in the same car park.

Once we were ready we cycled with thousands (literally 9000 others) of other riders to the start to find our pens. As our numbers were spread out we were all in different pens. Even if we had wanted to stay together there were so many people you would have had a problem staying together. I got to my pen and chatted to a guy from Dulwich Paragon. At one point whilst we were waiting he had to answer the call of nature. He left his bike with me and jumped over the barrier to find a tree. After answering the call I saw him coming back looking for me and his bike. I could see panic in his eyes when he couldn't see me (I am not the tallest cyclist and when there are that many people it is best to pick landmarks to aim for). It took a lot of shouting and waving to get his attention and getting him back with his bike.

We got away and crossed the start line at 7:16. That first 10 miles was slow and wasn't helped by a desperate call of nature. At 10 miles I stopped and went into the woods to do what bears do. Fortunately I had anticipated such an event and had the appropriate wipes. Such relief when I remounted my bike.

At about 15 miles I came across my Australian friend and we chatted.

There were lots of people even at this early stage with punctures and there were quite a few accidents.

As we went through Nyons, and past the hotel I was really enjoying the ride and continued to do so on the long stretch out to Col de Ey.

As I went up the Col de Ey OI spotted another friend and we chatted. As we chatted someone hit his back wheel and went over. Also someone fell in front of me ands I nearly ran over them.

I went to stop at the first food station which came after Col de Fauntaube. It was chaos. I'm not sure how anyone got anything. Fortunately we ha all taken the package offered by La Fuega. They had their own food station 2 Km past the official station. This was not crowded and had food, drink and energy products. I just had to show the band they had issued me with to get access. Lots of riders who had not paid were trying to get access but were being turned away. It was worth the £20 for the ability to feed and water without having to fight for it.

The food stop was followed by the long drag into Sault. I had promised myself I was going to rest there but when I got there it was chaos. The street was so busy I had to dismount to get through. No point in stopping so I remounted after getting through the mob and proceeded out of town past the chocolatier that some of the guys had taken advantage of during the reccie.

After Sault there is a steep downhill followed by another col. This one has a long drag followed by a number of false summits. As I pulled out of Sault I felt better and was surprised that I was OK going up this col.

We rode into Bedoin, past the chaos of the official food and water station and over the timer cable. The La Fuega food station was after the timer cable. At the La Fuega food station I sat in a chair and watched riders pass. I saw a couple of he guys going past and they called out to me as they passed. As I knew how hard the Ventoux was I was in no hurry.

I set off up the mountain. I was determined to get further than during the reccie before I got off and walked. I Got to the 12 Km to go point and had to dismount. I put on cleat covers and started to walk.

I did get back on at various times but for that last 12 Km I walked most of the way. It was like the battle of the Somme with bodies everywhere. People lying beside the road broken, some like me walking whilst other cycled in the 100 degree heat.

I looked at my watch and my speed. I was walking at between two to three mph and there was 7 miles to go and three hours before the cut off. I knew that provided I kept walking I would make it.

I got to Chalet Reynard before the water before it ran out. It was chaos as you needed to take your water bottle from your bike to be refilled. Most people assumed that they would be giving out the water in bottles and so left their bikes and their bottles only to be sent back to get their bottles.

Just after Chalet Reynard I had tried riding again but after half a mile dismounted. This time my legs were cramping so much I couldn't bend them to put on my cleat covers. I had to walk without them but I knew it didn't matter as I wasn't going to need to clip into the pedals again before the finish.

As I passed Tommy Simpson memorial I felt sick. I could not take any more gels. I was acutely aware that I was short of energy.

As you approach the finish the gradient kicks up from the constant 10% of the previous 10 miles. I looked at it before struggling up the gradient on foot pushing my bike. As I approached the line (some 10 feet before the line) I remounted and rode across the line.

My overall time was 9:02:30. It took 5:42:28 to do the first 93 miles and 3:20:02 to do the last 12 miles up the Ventoux (less the 10 minutes spent at La Fuega food station)!

After finishing you had to immediately cycle down the other side of the mountain to the finishing village half way down where you collected your medal and a goody bag. I had a text from the other guys saying that once you had collected your medal the finishing village was to one side, it wasn't very good, and you had to cycle up out of it. As I couldn't face another uphill I collected my medal but didn't go into village (the goody bag only had a Camelback water bottle so I didn't miss anything).

I then proceeded down the rest of the mountain into Malaucene. There the guys had staked out a table in a restaurant/cafe and were enjoying food and drink. I joined them and enjoyed pizza and tea and war stories. One of the lads was telling us how he chatted to Chris Boardman as he climbed the Ventoux.

As people finished they texted us. There was great joy when the last man finished. Everyone finished, we hadn't lost a single man. The times were much closer than we had expected. The course was a great leveller.

We then had the chore of going to the start to collect cars and didn't get back to the hotel until 8:00 PM.

Dinner was a quiet affair followed by an early night

Now everyone is chatting about next year, especially f Alp D'huez

Sunday: Registration in Montelimar

2009-08-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

Sunday we got up late still very tired. Still no news of the baby.

We needed to travel to Montelimar 40 Km down the road to where the Etape was going to start the next day (Monday). We needed to show our documents, register and pick up our number, transponder and goody bag.

Travelling down on the Saturday we had all three bikes inside the car (both for security when we stopped and to reduce drag on the long drive). I had also brought inside the car roof bars and bike racks to go on the roof as we were going to need them on race day to take bikes to the start, so first thing after breakfast I put these up on the car.

We then drove, five of us in the car, to the registration village. We registered then wandered around the event village at the start. The village was quite small, much smaller than two years ago at Foix. Seeing as it is such a big event you would have expected a much bigger event at the start.

Wandering around the village I met up with S from Team MK who was on a sports tours package. He joined us for lunch. Whilst I was leaving I also bumped into another friend that I had ridden with in Sydney last year and we had a chat.

We didn't hang around the village too long, things to do. We drove back to the hotel and some of the guys drove on to the finish to drop off two of the four cars we had between the six of us (another guy arrived Sunday morning). The plan was that we would take two cars to the start in the morning with the bikes, and leave the other two cars at the finish so we could drive home after the event.

Late afternoon, after putting our bikes together and watching some of the tour on Eurosport on the TV in our rooms, we did a short ride towards the start. After about 10 km we turned around and returned towards Nyons. Really got the cobwebs out of the legs with a fast ride downhill into Nyons.

We had an early dinner on the hotel terrace and went to bed early. Breakfast was booked for 4:00 AM.

Saturday: Travel to Nyons

2009-08-19T13:27:00.000-07:00

I had a 3:00 Am start on Saturday morning. One of the guys supposed to accompany me had a wife who was pregnant and whose baby was due. As (as he put it) “she had not done the business” he had decided not to travel with us. If she had the baby Saturday he would fly down Sunday and meet us. We would still be taking his bike and his baggage.

I picked up M before 4:00 Am and we drove to Dover to catch the 06:00 AM ferry. I cannot recommend the breakfast on the P&O ferry. I have had better.

We got to Calais without further incident and started the long drive south to Nyons. A couple of he other guys had got the 5:00 AM ferry and we didn’t expect to see them, however, just over a hour into the journey we happened upon them on the motorway. For the rest of the journey we leapfrogged each other.

We had hoped to get to Nyons about 18:00 however there was such traffic at Lyon that it was 20:00 before we arrived at Nyon. After being on the road for 16 hours we were tired as we ate our dinner that night and had no problem sleeping.

Friday - A proud father at his daughter graduation

2009-08-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

My original plan was to travel down to Nyons on the Friday, however, the best laid plans of mice and men and all that, my daughter’s university had that day planned for her graduation. As I had invested so much money in her getting this degree, and with the degree she was also awarded a prize for the best dissertation, so I needed to be at the graduation as proud father to witness the event.

I took the train to Leicester early on the Friday morning. As I had been struggling to think of the right present to get her I had not got anything by the time I arrived at Leicester station. As I came out of the station I saw a large camera and electrical store. I went in and purchased a pink Nikon camera. I had the shop put the fully charged battery from the demonstration camera in he one I bought and proceeded to the ceremony. The camera was well received and was fully used during the day.

My daughter had had the flu all week and had been off work for the previous days. Obviously she didn’t want to miss her graduation and on the day had dosed herself up with over the counter drugs so that she could get through the day. Her mother was also at the event and together we watched her get her degree. The three of us went to lunch before going to the prize giving ceremony in the afternoon. She was shattered after that so I left her with her mother and caught the 17:00 train home to London arriving home after 20:00.

After a long day I had to be up at 3:00 AM the next morning to travel to the Etape!

Last Minute Preparations

2009-08-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

For the Etape we (The Guildford Peloton) had arranged to stay at a gitte belonging to a member of the Guildford Peloton. This had been arranged for some time. It turns out that there might have been a bit of misunderstanding and that the family that owned the gitte would be staying at the gitte at the same time. As there was to be seven of us and we would be arriving and leaving at odd hours we decided that we needed to arrange alternative accommodation. I got in touch with Benoit at the Hotel Colombet in Nyons which we had used for the reccie and he came back to me immediately confirming that he could accommodate us. A real stroke of luck as Nyons is ideally located 40 Km from the start and 45 Km from the finish (and on the day it proved very handy for the rider with stomach cramps who dived into the hotel for emergency relief before continuing the ride). Also, we had really enjoyed our stay at the Colombet in May, the food is exceptionally good, the hotel clean, and the staff very pleasant and accommodating.

Two of the lads were travelling down with me in my car. They dropped off their bikes at my house on the Thursday night so they could be packed before the early start we had planned on Saturday morning. One of the lads got a £50 parking ticket for having his wheels parked on the pavement whilst dropping off his bike.

Saturday July 11th and Sunday July 12th: Last Minute Training

2009-08-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

On the weekend before the Etape I was torn between getting last minute training in, overtraining, and spending time with the family (as they would be away the weekend of the Etape for a week in Ireland with The Wife’s family).

The Saturday sorted itself out with no chance to ride and I had lots to do with the family. On the Sunday I wanted to ride but had no one to ride with. At 8:30 Am on the Sunday morning I decided to ring Big G. He does not usually get out of bed early at the weekend but I thought it worthwhile to try him. He did not initially answer the phone but eventually whilst I was leaving a message picked up. He agreed to meet me 20 minutes later for a ride. We got out and did a 43 mile ride in surrey hills with tea at Box Hill. The weather was good and the cycling relaxed. It was very relaxed and much the way cycling should be.

Weekend July 4th & 5th 2009: A fortnight to go!

2009-08-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

The weekend was spent in Bognor. Fortunately I was able to ride down on the Saturday and back on the Sunday. I did the 55 mile ride each way on my own. On the way back up the A29 on the Sunday afternoon I was feeling so good I decided that once I had been over Coldhabour and through Dorking I would go over Ranmore rather than just skirting around it. This does not add any distance but does include an extra climb.

It was during this ride that I noticed that my gears were playing up with difficulty in changing the gears on the front rings. I hadn’t intended getting the bike serviced before the Etape but this showed me that I needed to get it done urgently. On the Monday after my ride back from Bognor I telephone Corridori in Banstead to see if they could help me. They told me that they were very busy but as a regular customer they would fit me in. As it turns out, when I picked it up they told me that my chain and rear cassette were “beyond worn” so it was a good job I got it done rather than struggle with a mechanical on the Etape.

Etape - I finished

2009-07-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

Every last man from the Guildford Peloton who started the Etape finished.

Not one casualty.

My overall time was 9:02:30.

It took 5:42:28 to do the first 93 miles and 3:20:02 to do the last 12 miles up the Ventoux!

The Ventoux was brutal, scenes like the battle of the Somme. The temperature was over 100 degrees (42C) with people lying beside the road, walking, and generally suffering

More to follow when I get a chance

How did you do?

June 15th: I wobbled The Dragon Ride

2009-06-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I did The Dragon Ride, a 117 mile race from Bridgend across the Brecon Beacons and back. 3100 riders took part. It is one of the UKs premier Sportive events. Here is the race report:

I drove down to wales on the M4 on a sunny Saturday afternoon. I was staying with family friends in Pencoed (just outside Bridgend) on Saturday night. Nice and convenient for the start being only a mile away. Upon arrival I was greeted with a nice welcoming hot lasagne dinner and a comfy bed.

My day started at 5:30 am when I was woken by the baby in the next room babbling before he decided he had had enough and started to cry for his first bottle of the day. No need for an alarm when there are youing children about. It was bright and sunny outside, no point in staying in bed any longer. I got up, showered, breakfasted (I had Weetabix and Croissant whilst the baby was enjoying his bottle of milk with his Dad) and left for the start line before 7:00 am.

I met up with my friend S from RBS/Guildford Peloton / Team MK in the car park and we proceeded to the start arriving just before 8:00 am.

We were about the fourth group to start at 8:12 am. The start was much more efficient than last year where we had to hang around the start for ages . It was obviously early on that S was chomping at the bit. He had said at the start that as he was on his new Scott bike (he has a new bike so now his wife wants new golf clubs) he wanted to beat last years time even though the course was 20 Km longer than last year (the generous organisers had slipped a new hill at the start and another at the finish). After about 10 miles I let S go and proceeded on my own.

At 42 miles in the middle of the Brecon Beacons National Park I was with a group that was moving quite nicely (but probably faster that would have been good for me overall) when there was a loud "BANG" and my bike shook. The guy next to me said that it was probably a stone but the guy behind me corrected him and said I had lost a spoke and my back wheel was buckled. I got off and my wheel was badly buckled as I had lost a drive side spoke. The wheel was rubbing on the brakes and frame.

As there was no telephone signal and I would have had to wait hours for the sweep wagon I loosened off my brakes and decided to cautiously proceed to get to civilisation. This proceeding cautiously turned into 18 miles of cautious riding until I reached the food station at 60 miles. As I arrived S was just leaving. There I telephoned the mechanical support (provided my Mavic, real French mechanics in a yellow Mavic Tour car with French plates. They didn't swap out my back wheel, the mechanic tweaked a few spokes to slightly correct the buckle so that it was not rubbing too much and told me that should get me home.

As I left I got into a bunch from De Vere cycles who were wearing a bright canary yellow strip and were storming along . I raced with them for the next 25 miles swallowing up groups and spitting them out. At one stage I was racing downhill at 45 mph with only a front brake and a tremendous wobble on the back of the bike.

Eventually I could keep it up no longer and got spat out. A few miles further on I was greeted with a "Welcome Back" as I was swallowed into a group of guys who had similarly been dropped. This group broke up as we hit the hills again.

All the way people kept coming up to me and telling me "do you know your back wheel is buckled", "that looks dangerous", "wow", and "that looks nasty". I don't think anyone behind me could but notice it was so bad but hearing these comments some 100 times over 87 miles got a bit repetitive.

I throttled back as I knew the Bwlch (big mountain 4.5 miles at 8%) was coming up. Last year I had to walk some of it but this year I was determined to get at least further before dismounting. It hurt but even in my lowest gear and with the afternoon heat coming off the road (yes, it was hot and sunny all day with temperatures in the 30s, unlike the usual rain Wales usually guarantees) I managed to get to the top. I knew there was less than 20 miles and only one hill to go. As I came over the top there was a guy lying in the middle of the road who had had a nasty fall and was waiting for an ambulance. While I was waiting to get through I heard some of the guys say he had had a mechanical failure causing the fall. He was obviously badly hurt. I saw the ambulance coming up the mountain as I was going down.

From there to the end I formed a tag team with another guy and we took turns pushing the pace on finishing the last few miles with a sprint .

I finished in 7 hours 38 minutes against 7 hours 10 minutes last year over the shorter course. I would have been pleased with this time even without the mechanical shenanigans so I was very pleased. I met up with S at the burger bar (he had done 7 hours 17) and managed half a burger before my tummy protested as we analysed the race. I then went back to my friends for a shower (very welcome). I had a cup of tea whilst the children were having their sausages and potatoes (I was offered some but after eating stodge all day I wasn't hungry).

I was on the M4 on my way home at 5:30 pm and home at 9:00 pm.

Now to get to the bike shop to see if I can get my wheel repaired before the Etap.

June 3rd 2009: Glorious Summer Weather

2009-06-03T07:08:00.000-07:00

This morning I had an orthodontist appointment at 8:00 AM in Teddington / Hampton Hill. To avoid the traffic I cycled there on my old 1980s steel Peugeot 501 (after repairing the puncture again, it turned out I had made a poor job of repairing the puncture the first time and air was leaking from under the patch, Note: I still haven't replaced the old 1980s tyre).

At 7:40 AM as I was locking my bike up outside the dental surgery when my phone rang (see, I do use the lock, I don't just use it for ballast in my saddlebag going uphill). The phone call was from the surgery advising me that the orthodontist had been taken into hospital so my appointment needed rearranging. I went into reception and re booked my appointment.

As it was such a beautiful heavenly morning and I had taken a half days holiday to go to my sons Piano recital this afternoon and I had my bike I decided to take the long way home. Off I went to Hampton Court, Esher, Leatherhead, Box Hill, Tadworth, Epsom Race Course (a hive of activity getting ready for the Derby this weekend), Banstead, Cheam and home. A total of 37 miles (don't forget on a heavy bike and carrying my trusty saddlebag with tools and lock) at a leisurely pace.

Box Hill was deserted, just the odd cyclist coming down, and not a Brompton in sight. The tea shop was only just opening as I went past so I didn't stop.

I popped in to Corridori (bike shop) which was also deserted and had a chat with the owner as it was so quiet. I wanted to know if I had accidentally left my helmet in the shop Saturday, I hadn't. It is still missing.

All together I had a good morning and was at my desk at home by 9:45 AM. Why can't all mornings be like this? Was anyone else enjoying the sunshine or were you all tied to your desks?

Talking of Bromptons, after seeing that guy climbing the Ventoux on a Brompton I have been in touch with the Brompton Owners Club in respect of the 2010 Reccie. We are in advanced talks for a combined Brompton Owners Club / Guildford Peloton Reccie trip 2010, however, they are insisting that the Guildford Peloton will have to form a Brompton Section affiliated to them and that all riders will be required to ride Bromptons (so no more carbon or titanium unless Brompton change their construction materials in the coming months), wear suits and tie (Moss Bros not Rapha and no lycra) and instead of saddle bags you will require a rack and briefcase. I don't think that these conditions are unreasonable but I thought I had better canvass club opinion before tying the Guildford Peloton into riding the Alp D'huez on a Brompton next year.

There is one advantage of this plan, you won't need the bike boxes, just fold up your Brompton and carry it as hand luggage.

May 30th 2009: How can you loose a cycle helmet?

2009-06-03T06:49:00.000-07:00

I have lost my cycle helmet, I can't find it anywhere? I had it Saturday lunchtime when I returned to the house but now I can't find it. I wonder if I put it on the roof of the car Saturday then drove off?

Friday I cycled to work on my old Peugeot 501 as the weather was good. As I haven't cycled for some time all my access rights to the car park had been revoked and I had to arrange for these to be renewed. Also, I got a slow puncture on the way home. Close inspection of the tyre revealed it is on its last legs being the original supplied with the bike in the 1980s.

Things are a bit tense in the house as my son has a week of exams coming up and there is quite a lot of revision to be done over the coming week. My wife and I seem to be the ones doing the revision (well, mostly my wife, it has added 5 years to her) whilst my son tried to talk, moan, whinge, or delay his way out of it.

I went out riding early on Saturday morning with M. We rode out to Windsor Great Park and back, 50 miles round trip, including coffee stop in the sun in the park, just under 4 hours and back dead on curfew. My wife was in the car with the engine running as I pulled up. I threw the bike in the house, jumped in the car and drove off to drop my son at a birthday party (something I was mandated to do as a condition of going out).

Later on we picked him up and drove on to Bognor.

The ride to Windsor was flat and the park itself is magnificent. Note to self to go back and explore properly with my son and his bike. It was nice not having to worry about hills, cols or mountains. I sat behind M sheltering from the headwind on the way back whilst his legs pumped the pedals like steam pistons.

Sunday we spent the day on the beach at Bognor. My son was in the water for hours and we built a sand castle on the beach. We watched later in the afternoon as the tide washed it away.

I went into Corridori, the bike shop, Saturday afternoon to buy a white jersey after dropping my son at the party in Kingswood. They were very busy. They have some nice Bianchi clothing in stock, but not having a Bianchi I had to opt for the white jersey from Specialized.

Monday, my wife agreed to do the school run so after fixing the puncture I again took my life in my hands and cycled in to the City to work. I obviously hadn't done a good job on the repair as when I went to cycle home the tyre was flat (note, I hadn't replaced the old tyre). I could not be bothered to repair it there and then and so I simply pumped it up and hoped it would last until I got home, and fortunately it did.

Guildford Peloton Etap Reccie Trip to Ventoux

2009-06-03T06:12:00.000-07:00

The reccie was Thursday May 21st through until the following Bank Holiday Monday May 25th. There were 12 riders and 1 driver. Having organised all the logistics: booking the hotel, organising the vans and driver (OK M did that bit), coming up with an itinerary, even designing and ordering the T Shirts; I was afraid that I would get the blame when bikes didn't arrive, the hotel was a dump, the weather prevented decent riding, the tee shirts turn up with a spelling mistake and the flights home were delayed. All in all I worried for no reason. The logistics all worked out and the hotel (Hotel Colombie recommended by Veloventoux.com)not only was good but the food was exceptional. The weather was hot and sunny and the bugs were biting. I am still scratching a week later.

Thursday mornng I had arranged for everyone to meet at Gatwick before security at 5:30 AM. I was picking M up at 4:10 AM when I got the first text message that the first person had arrived, checked in, and was going through security. M & I were some of the last to arrive and we were checking in well before 5:30 AM. People certainly were keen.

The flight was uneventful, with a nice egg and bacon sandwich courtesy of BA. Some of the group had paid the premium and enjoyed a cooked breakfast in Business class. At Marseille the bikes all arrived undamaged (although the handlers had certainly tested the strength of a few of the boxes judging by the marks on them).

Europcar made us wait an hour in a queue to get the vans we had pre-hired. Their service certainly could be improved, and we noted later in the trip that one of the vans had a bald tyre!

There was only one problem. Whilst the bikes and lugguage all fitted in the two vans (just) there were 13 of us and only 12 seats between the two vans - oops. We had to squeeze 4 people on a row of seats designed for 3 people, quite uncomfortable for the 140 Km ride from Marseille to Nyon.

We were origionally told by the hotel that whilst they could accomodate us two people would have to share a double bed. When booking in as I was organising the logistics everyone else was checking in. I was the last to arrive at reception to be advised I was in the triple room. Three of us went up to the room looking suspiciously at each other wondering which two of us were going to share. We entered the room to see two double beds, but then further exploration of the room found an annex room with a sofa bed made up - phew, relief

On the Thursday we arrived we got to the hotel mid afternoon (after stopping for a pizza lunch) so everyone went out for a 25 mile ride from Nyon (40 Km into the Etap) towards the start and back. There was a lot of good humour, bravado and positioning which set everyone up for the night.

Day two, the Friday we rode as a group from Nyon towards the finish. The day was glorious and with everyone in good spirits the ride went well. It really is a scenic route this year. We got to the base of the Ventoux late afternoon after riding 68 miles. It was very hot and very busy (someone was even riding up on a Brompton).

I must admit that I was one of the two who didn't make the top. The heat and the fast motorcycles and sports cars racing to the top got to me and 6 km from the top I got off and walked, in fact staggered. As I came around a corner I saw the support van and really struggled to get to it. As I was collapsed on the ground by the van another of our riders came around the corner, saw me and gave up also. Had I not been there I am sure he would have continued to the top.

Day three we split into two groups with the fast group going up the Ventoux whilst the slow group (which I participated in) cycled the short route from Nyons to Bedoin stopping there for lunch before returning.

Day four, Sunday, the fast group did a three hour drive to Alp D'huez whilst the slow group went up Ventoux from Malaucene. I was with the fast group. At the base of Alp D'huez it was suggested that we warm up with a trip up the Col Croix de Fer (cross of iron). This turned out to be a 25 mile climb gaining 1500 metres, however, every so often you would go down 100 metres and then climb again so the total climb over 25 miles was 1500 metres. At the end of that we decided that we had probably done enough and left the Alp D'huez for another day.

Whilst on the way up to the Col De Croix de Fer I had noticed a creperie. On the way back down I was climbing out of one of the annoying valleys and remembered that the creperie was just beyond the next summit. I really fancied a crepe and a coffee at this point but knew I didn't really have time to stop as the fast guys were in front of me and everyone else was close behind in the van (some people had had enough at the top and decided to ride the van back). There was a sign saying "Creperie 500 metres" as I reached the top confirming my memory. As I reached the creperie the fast guys were sitting outside enjoying a crepe, joy! I stopped and ordered a chocolate crepe with ice cream and a coffee. I was able to enjoy them in the knowledge that the last 10 miles was downhill or flat so no more climbs. It was delicious!!!!

Monday the fast group went up Ventoux again. As my bike was in the van right at the back I couldn't get it out without taking everyone elses bike out first. We had got back from Alp D'huez at 11 Pm and I didn't want to do it then and the fast group left at 7:00 AM Monday morning which was before I could get up (I had to do the admin over the bills with the hotel anyway). Those who didn't go with the fast group rode locally or explored the town.

At 1:00 PM we all jumped in the van and drove to Marseille Airport tired but satisfied after an enjoyable trip.

Be warned, the Etape will be hot, hard and with lots of biting insects. Don't over egg the first 90 miles, save yourself for the ascent of Ventoux.

May 16th: 90 Miles and a lot of wheel hugging

2009-05-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend, on the Saturday May 16, whilst a few of the pelotoners were doing the Etap Caledonia, M and I rode down to Bury Hill.

The weather forecast was foul but we decided to go anyway. On the way down we were following the SWRC 100 course (the painted arrows are still on the roads so it is easy enough to follow the route) popping out on the A29 at Adversane. The headwind was horrible and after about 38 miles I had to duck behind M to shelter from the wind. He just pumped on.

As we approached Bury Hill there is a downhill before the step uphill, the wind was so strong at this point we had to pedal downhill! We stopped briefly at the café at the top of the hill (under new management, a bit more attractive now) then headed back up the A29 to London.

With a tailwind M took the pace up and we were storming along. After 8 miles we reached the café at Toat and stopped for a snack (baked beans and egg on toast for me, cake for M). The flag outside the café was stiff showing a strong wind heading north.

Whilst in the café a cyclist called Richard Newey turned up and we got talking. He was training for the Race Across America (http://www.richardnewey.co.uk/). A 300 mile race from the West Coast to the East with a time limit of 12 days. He told us how he had done the race in a team and was now doing it solo (in a weeks time). M has always wanted to do this race but I think Richard’s stories put him off a bit.

We then set off again and M was laying down a cracking pace with me hugging his wheel desperately. When we got to the Surrey Hills and the road up to Coldharbour I was suffering in my 34 X 28 gear. M was waiting for me at the top of each incline. After that it was down into Dorking then up Box Hill at 6 mph then along to the A217. As soon as we hit the fast tarmac on the A217 M was off like a rocket. We were keeping up 31 mph as we went through the Banstead crossroads and if rarely dropped below 30 mph all the way to Cheam. He was really enjoying the tailwind.

A good 90 miles banked and sore legs for a few days even though I was wheel hugging / sucking for 60 of the miles.

Here is a piece of useless information: What is a Dorking and why do they have a 12 foot giant silver steel cockerel of the roundabout in Dorking? Well, it seems a Dorking is a 5 toed chicken the meat of which was favoured by Queen Victoria. Also, the town of Dorking had the longest poultry market in the country. Now you know.

Sunday, May 10th was the Hampshire Hilly Hundred – not for me!

2009-05-18T14:11:00.000-07:00

I have done the Hampshire Hilly Hundred the last couple of years but I was still in no fit state by the weekend so I ducked out. A few of the Pelotoners did the race and we all agree it is one of the nicest races of the season.

On the Sunday I got my Look 585 Ultra off the rack in the garage and got it ready for its first outing of the year. I then did a 28 mile Box Hill circuit at a gentle pace to test it out and at least get some exercise.

I have not been on the turbo or in the gym for some weeks. All that base I did in the winter is going to waste.

Hell of Ashdown: Weekend of May 2nd 2009

2009-05-18T13:59:00.000-07:00

Myself with 4 others including my brother from St Albans and M went over to East Croydon to where one of the Pelotoners lives. From there we did a 70 miles loop in the Kent countryside from East Croydon to Lingfield and back basically following the Hell of Ashdown course.

After only about 10 miles we met another large group (Dulwich I think) and after being a bit mixed up for a few miles we separated and upon each going our own way we found ourselves with extra rider. At about 40 miles at Lingfield we Stopped for tea and sandwich. We discovered the interloper was out for the first time with the other group and hadn’t realized there were two clubs and by the time he had realized it was too late to try to find his own riders, so he ended up doing the 70 miles with us.

Towards the end of the loop is a big hill. By this point M and I had been hanging behind the group struggling for some time. We didn’t like the look of the 16% gradient sign and were advised by one of the other riders there was another way up the hill. M and I took the alternative route and met the others at the top of the hill. Whilst hey went straight up then rested we probably had to do another 2 miles of hill which still hurt, we might have been better off going up the steep route.

On the Bank Holiday Monday I was trashed with headache, tummy problems etc. Tuesday and Wednesday I struggled into the City for a training course at BPP financial training for the Securities Institute exams I am taking in June, not that I was ina fit state to learn anything. I just sat in the class trying to concentrate and suffering.

Thursday I got as far as the station and felt so bad I came home. I went to the doctors and diagnosed with a virus. He prescribed 7 day course of antibiotics for swollen glands and throat and ear infection.

It was quite handy going to the doctors as needed a repeat prescription for the drops I have recently been prescribed as I was diagnosed with Glaucoma which means that I need eye drops in my eyes for the rest of my life and I. I got the repeat prescription at the same time.

Weekend April 24th & 25th 2009

2009-05-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

Friday I was working from home. Late afternoon after I had finished work I jumped on my bike and did a very pleasant Box Hill run.

Saturday I went out to join the Dynamos in Richmond Park. I had not taken into account that they go out in the summer at 8:30 am so at just before 9:00 am I was cycling to the starting point when I cam across a peloton of Dynamos heading in the same direction. I jumped on the back. As we went passed the starting point (the crossraods at Sheen Gate) there was only three riders waiting? The group I was with didn’t stop but kept on moving and the three waiting riders jumped on the back. The pace was too fast for me and another guy. He and I dropped off the back and did the 4 laps together chatting. It turned out he was also an ex-oarsman from Twickenham Rowing Club and we must have been there in different squads at the same time. He also had a very interesting tale of the internet booking business he was COO for.

After the laps we stopped at the Café at Roehampton Gate with the other Dynamos for a tea before splitting up and I did another couple of laps then home.

Guildford Peloton Etap Reccie Trip to Ventoux

2009-04-24T09:12:00.000-07:00

There are 10 riders and one driver booked on the Whitsun Bank Holiday Guildford Peloton Etap Reccie Trip (11 riders now, just had a late response). The hotel and a van is booked, and I assume so are everyone’s flights. Local Picon distilleries and Pizzarias have been advised of the visit.

Judging by correspondence a number of groups are going to be in the area that weekend including GPM10/Cyclefit. The road up the Ventoux is going to busy.

I have circulated an email to all the associates of the Guildford Peloton. Things are hotting up on the organisation front. I have asked the usual questions of the participants, any dietary, medical or other requirements, passports and insurance details, next of kin and disabilities (last year another group in the same hotel incurred an fatality) which I need to advise the hotel of or need to be built into the logistics. No doubt there will be the usual nil return then everyone will tell me on the aircraft and expect me to have a photocopier etc to hand, but I might be plesantly surprised.

I have also asked for peoples entries and excuses and reasons as to they qualify for any of the following categories:

slowest rider
best excuse
most unfit
best dressed (Rapha suits are banned both on the bike and at meals)
worst dressed (baggy lycra gives extra points)
most camp / only gay in the peloton
most drug fuelled (Fishermans Friends don't count in this category, only the category above)
worst steed
flashest steed
babe on a bike (not that we are sexist but only the two girls qualify for this unless there is something one of the boys has not told us?)

I have already had excuses like broken ribs, chest infections, athletes foot and late delivery of new bikes.

We will also include the usual Yellow Jersey, Polka Dot Jersey, and Green Jersey competitions. These are wide open this year with the absence of Lance Armstrong, Carlos Sastre, Nicole Cook and the Guildford Peloton Club Champion.

These competitons are all in the spirit of good club ribbing and humour and the organising committee will consider submissions on the flight out and will verify the result on the way home. Prizes will not be awarded, only titles.

*Usual rules apply to this trip, NO YFronts under your cycling shorts

April 24th - I have my Etap Number 3778

2009-04-24T07:11:00.000-07:00

The numbers are now coming up on the Etap site thick and fast (go to the French site not the English to find your number, there is a search facility under "Inscriptions"). I suppose that is it, I am committed now.

A friend of mine sent me an email re training in the gym. Now I might not be doing things right but here is what I replied to him.

I went to the gym last night. Majority opinion here is not to train by wattage but to train by heart rate. Most people are looking to do at least two hour sessions (some are doing up to 4 hour sessions) at around 130 bpm with a cadence of 85-95 (that should burn you over 1000 calories). At the end of the session take a note of the wattage (machine usually summarises with avg power) and compare it to a previous session (taking into account how you felt on each).

Don't worry what other people are doing, what works for you?

Training in the gym is very boring so make sure you have a radio, TV or iPod to keep you entertained, and have at least one full bottle of water if not two.

If you go too hard in the first hour you will suffer badly in the second.

I did two hours last night in the gym (boy are those gym bike saddles uncomfortable), my first sesion for a while. I must admit my heart rate was up at 138 avg. The first hour my wattage was about 180 and the second hour I dropped the wattage to about 168 because I was suffering (that was level 8 then level 7).

I suggest you consider doing a spin class at the gym before your session to break up the boredom. When the spin class finishes then jump on the regular exercise bike and do a steady ride to complete the session.

I must admit that I did 5000 metres on the rowing machine before I started the 2 hours (so overall it was a 2 hour 21 minute session).

You might consider incorporating rowing into your fitness regime. The rowing machine is very complimentary in that rowing is a leg sport and oarsmen always perform well at cycling, but it is non-impact, strengthens the lower back and upper body without adding heavy muscle (I have read that cycling neglects these muscles and can lead to problems over time). You will need to get an oarsman (rather than a fitness instructor) to teach you how to row properly on the machine (there are some good instruction videos on youtube such as www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqVmMd7FdAA), set the resistance low (about level 3 or 4) then do sessions of 5,000-10,000 metres (20 to 45 minutes) at a rating (strokes per minute) of 20-22 (top right hand box on Concept II) and wear a heart rate monitor and keep the heart rate between 120-140 bpm. Don't try to race, just to get smoothness and posture. It may feel easy to start but you will be surprised how hard it gets after 10 minutes.

As for the Etap. Treat it like an adventure. If it is your first then trust me you will be back so your aim should only be to finish. If you achieve a silver or gold great but don't go looking for them because it will ruin it for yourself. The first 80 miles is hilly/undulating and will take a toll on you but you need to have something in the tank for the last 22km (which is going to be the hardest two hours of your life) but once you are on that last 20 Km there is no point in not making it. Look to enjoy it, don't ride too hard for the first 80 miles, and just stay ahead of the broom wagon (something I might find difficult this year).

The Etap is a memorable experience, there will always be people faster or slower that you no matter how fast or slow you are. 8000 people riding makes the roads very busy and if it is a nice day very much a party atmosphere.

Take into consideration that every 100 metres you climb the temperature drops 1 degree so climbing Ventoux the temperature will drop 15 degrees between to bottom and the top!

It seems to take over your life, doesn't it?

April 21st 2009 Wot, no fitness?

2009-04-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

I did manage two one hour sessions on the bike in the gym this week

Saturday the Guilford Peloton was riding out to Windsor. I couldn’t make it as I was on family duty.

As you will have gathered from my earlier posts it was my son’s birthday last week and as a present we gave him a Specialized Hardrock. He just fitted on the smallest adult size. During the week he had ridden around the block on it with his mother running behind but he hadn’t ridden it in anger. For this reason (and because it was sunny) we decided to take him to Richmond Park where there is a seven mile long cycling and walking track around the perimeter of the park (well, just inside the perimeter actually). I cycled to Ladderstile Gate whilst my wife and son went up in the car. We then rode our bikes on the track down towards Kingston Gate and all the way around (via Ham Gate, Richmond Gate and Sheen Gate) to the café at Roehampton Gate. We arrived at 10:15 AM just after the London Dynamos who had just finished their usual Saturday morning four laps of the park. There was some 70 or 80 of them all in the Dynamo kit drinking tea (despite being a member I didn’t have my kit on, I was wearing Corridori kit). We sat down with coffees and enjoyed the sunshine with them.

There was a plan in my madness. The Guildford Peloton was meeting here at 10:30 to start the Windsor ride. We got the opportunity to say hello to them before they set off. We then returned around the park to Ladderstile. All total my son did about 10 miles on the new bike so I deem that a success. The bike worked really well for him but I must say though, it was hard work cycling up Kingston Hill using only one hand whilst pushing my son uphill on his bike with the other!

Although I had those two sessions in the gym it made no difference to the pain I encountered getting home on Sunday. Sunday was bright and sunny but there was a cold wind. I met M in Thames Ditton and we cycled the 16 miles through Cobham to Shere to meet the rest of the Pelotooners. We had a steady ride to Shere via Cobham and arrived in plenty of time to get a coffee at the Duck whilst waiting for the others. Whilst waiting we got a text to say that there had been a delay with the trains and those arriving from Central London (via Guildford) were going to delay the peloton. As M and I were on a lunchtime curfew we decided not to wait and pressed on. We went out of Shere up to Peaslake, over to Abinger, up Leith Hill, to Coldharbour, Dorking and up Box Hill (we missed out Ranmore). As we went past the National Trust Tea Shop at the top of Box Hill we were suffering a bit. We parted further on with M heading back towards Leatherhead whilst I went on towards Walton on the Hill and Tadworth.

No sooner had we parted than I bonked. We had done 45 miles at this point and I had to stop for a gel and a drink. I then struggled painfully home the last 10 miles. It only goes to prove the old cyclist myth that you should never ride past without stopping at the National Trust Tea Shop at the top of Box Hill. In fact Big G confirmed that the same happened to him on Saturday when he tried to ride past without stopping.

I managed to get back home before curfew. I showered, bolted down some pasta and meat The Wife had prepared for me then rushed my son over to Tolworth where he was due to march up and down the High Street with the Beavers, Cubs abs Scouts for St Georges Day with a church service. Whilst he was in the church service (thankfully parents were not allowed to attend) I sat in a café holding my head (I was still recovering from the 55 miles) and drinking tea preparing for the next trial, my sons birthday bowling party for 20 nine year olds. Once the parade was over (actually I pulled him out of the parade before they reached the end as they were running late and I had to get him to the party on time) we rushed over to the bowling alley to meet his mates and bowl, followed by burgers and cake.

By the time I got home after the party I was fit for nothing, and he was as bad. My son and I lay on the bed and watched the recording I had made earlier of the Grand Prix. I picked Sebastian Vettel for my fantasy F1 team last year and he came of age, this year he is my main driver so I was pleased to see him win. Now all I have to do is engineer an introduction for him to my daughter so that I can get F1 tickets all the time. He is about the same age as her and he will be rich, and he has a nice smile, what more could she want?

April 14th 2009 Wot, no training!

2009-04-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

I have been so anxious about work that I haven't had the inclination to train. I have been very tired and not able to focus on training on the bike or in the gym (not helped by constant lunchtime meetings in my diary about integration). If I don't do some training soon I will be caught by the Etap sweep van very early.

Not this weekend just gone, but the previous weekend (Saturday April 5th), I cycled to a holiday home on the coast at a place called Bognor Regis, a 58 mile ride with 750 metres of climb over the North and South Downs. At 37 miles I was exhausted and had to stop for tea and cake before struggling the last 20 miles against the wind. I should have been able to do that in my sleep even on the little amount of training I have done recently. Very disappointing. I didn't have the inclination to even attempt to cycle home from there on the Sunday after staying overnight.

This Easter weekend I was tired and stressed all weekend. Good Friday I did a two hour bike ride in the garage on the Tacx then we had some friends and their kids over. Saturday we went to Bognor (by car this time), cycled about a bit along the sea front then had a nice dinner with a school friend, his wife and sons and his parents. Sunday was church, swimming then gardening whilst my son played football in the street with other kids. Monday was my sons 9th birthday so we went with friends and family to a local National Trust property called Polesden Lacey (those of you cycling in the Surrey Hills have probably like me seen signs for it but have never thought to go there) and did the Easter Egg hunt, had a picnic and played on the lawn and in the trees (the weather forecast was rain but it turned out a glorious day). Then they all came back to our house and created havoc.

Next weekend we will also be busy with dinner at friends on Friday night, and St Georges Day Parade and church service with the Cubs on Sunday followed by my son’s birthday party for his school pals at a local bowling alley (twenty hyper screaming 9 year old boys!). Maybe I will get a ride in on Saturday but I am aware that I have a pile of rubbish now in the garden in Bognor that needs to be taken down to the local dump and that might take priority.

I did manage an hour on the gym bike at 184 watts today lunchtime but the heart rate was up in the 150s. This was the only gym session in a good while.

March 31st Is it spring yet?

2009-04-14T13:43:00.000-07:00

You will all be waiting with baited breath for the result of the West Suton little League League Cup Final Result. My sons team took an early lead only to find themselves 2-1 down a little later in the game, they turned that around to 3-2 up with one minute to got - then disaster the opposition equalised outside of the run of play. The poor parents had to suffer another half hour of tense and close play only to see our team loose 4-3 in extra time.

My training has been intermittent. I didn't ride at all last weekend (March 29th/30th). After doing 150 miles the weekend before (March 23rd) and have only done one 2 hour session in the gym in the last fortnight.

My motivation is lacking at the moment. Other people in my group are off with various illnesses and injuries and things at home quite busy and quite tense. I am looking forward to getting away to the reccie weekend at the end of May because that will make it real and give an impetus to training. It will also give me an indication as to where the others really are (you can't hide your performance when riding up French mountains)

Someone asked my why the Etap has categories for racers, spotivers etc. You probably are not aware of them if you booked through Sports Tours but the company I got my entry through (www.Etape.org.uk) asked us what category we thought we were which influences our race numbers. Also if you look at your number on the Etap site you will see you have been categorised. I have no idea about the organisation for the Etap or why there are different categories as it doesn't seem to make one jot of difference to your start number as far as I can see. I just accept the number I get given because I can't influence it. I am not worried about the first 80 miles - just from there to the finish scares the life out of me.

At least it is getting lighter and warmer here in the UK (so I am told as our office has no windows that let in light, we do have great big picture windows which look out at the ground floor of a 42 storey building 10 feet away so we can't tell whether it is light, dark, sunny or rainy, all we see is the odd pigeon trapped until it rises out of the dark).

On Saturday March 22nd in the morning I did family stuff at the garden centre. We then went to Corridori, the bike shop in Banstead as I wanted to get some energy gels and other bits. Whilst we were there we ended up buying a bicycle (no, not for me unfortunately) for my son’s birthday. We got him a Specialized Rock Hopper. He just fitted on a small adult size but it is considerably lighter than his current bike. He doesn't know we got it and will be (hopefully pleasantly) surprised on his birthday.

As soon as we got home Big G rang me. He had popped into the cycle shop to pick up some bits and they told him I had just left. We then arranged to go out that afternoon. We did 51 miles fairly fast over Leith Hill, probably fastest G has done it on the Bianchi recently anyway (he has been faster on his Look 595 bike). I was really feeling it on my legs.

Sunday I did a 100 mile ride between Reading and Basingstoke and back, a big loop, with a friend and his mates that were raising money through sponsorship for a mate of theirs who has been disabled in an accident. I left the house at 5:30 AM and drove to Reading. There were three of them on aluminium or steel hybrids and me on my carbon racing bike. We set off at 7:15 am at between 14 and 15 mph. The first major stop was just under 6 hours later when we had covered 62 miles (100 km). We stopped at a pub for a roast dinner and treacle pudding and custard (energy food). We then proceeded to finish off the ride with the average speed dropping to 10 mph. The last 20 miles was a real struggle for them and at one point I wondered if they would finish, but energy gels and Ibuprofen (for the knee problems they were suffering) got them through. They did really well and finished the ride at 17:30 some 10 and a quarter hours after starting. The M4 on the way home was a nightmare and I didn't get home until after 8:00 PM. Big trouble with The Wife.

The week after was very busy. On the Monday I was out last night with Big G and a couple of old friends from Barclays Rowing Club. Thursday I drove up to Leicester with my son to see my daughter at university and to visit the National Space Center - bet you didn’t know the UK had one, I didn't! Friday night I was out at drink up for a secondee I have been buddying for the last 6 months. The wife is not happy at all with me being out so much, more negative brownie points. Really in the doghouse badly, desperately need some brownie points but can't see any opportunity this week.

Mothers Day? Was it March 23rd: Oops! It was Mothers Day on the Sunday March 23rd in the UK (different date from the US and Australian Mothers Day) and as I had not seen my mum for a long time I should really have been seeing my Mum and my wife rather than cycling around Berkshire, Surrey and Buckinghamshire. Next year , maybe.

March 13th 2009 The story continues

2009-03-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

I have been very lax about training recently, result of stress of the job and a bit of virus. I have not done an ergo on the rowing machine for about a month. My only exercise has been the odd cycle.

I have now managed to get an entry for the Etap through Ron at Etap.org. The introduction was through a friend in Australia. I had tried Ron late last year but got no luck but this time he had someone who had pulled out and I had 48 hours to get my medical form signed by my doctor and in to Ron with my money. Have you ever tried to get a doctors appointment in a hurry? In the end I camped out at the surgery in the morning and was fortunate enough to get a slot within the hour and now I am just waiting to find out my start number.

I did the SWRC 100 Km race on Sunday March 8th. The weather forecast was for poor weather and I wasn’t feeling great. I felt so bad that on the morning I couldn’t be bothered to cycle to the start so I got the train to Leatherhead and cycled the two miles from there to the start. The weather turned out to be really good. Last year I managed 3:59 and this year I managed 3:56 although the course was about a mile shorter this year and with about 70 metres less climb. S from Milton Keynes was two minutes behind me last year but this year beat me by two minutes. At least that shows my fitness is on par with this time last year. After the race I used the return portion of my ticket and got the train home. It started to pour with rain just as I got in the door.

There was one weekend a few weeks ago when my wife and son were in Ireland for the weekend seeing Nana and I took the opportunity to get a 93 mile ride in. I rode down to Bury Hill just north of Arundel and back. It was that glorious Sunday when we all thought winter had finally come to an end (wrong!) and at 58 miles I was sitting outside a café in the sunshine eating beans on toast and drinking tea: Yes, that is one of the good bits in the life of a cyclist.

My son has been playing football. Mixed results with a loss, a draw and finally an 8-0 win. This means that whereas they won the pre Christmas league undefeated, in the post Christmas league (the season operates in two halves) the team will end up middle of the table. They are however in the League Champions Final (Pre Christmas League Winner versus Post Christmas League Winner) in a fortnight’s time. In addition they were knocked out of The Cup competition at the semi-final stage.

Playing the football in this team this season has vastly helped his confidence and that has been reflected in his sports at school. Also, whereas he wanted to be in goal all the time at the start of the season he now wants to be out on the field. The problem here is that he has proved to be capable in goal so the teams all want him there.

Have you ever had to organise a Bank Holiday trip for a club? I have had to take the bull by the horns and organise the Etap Reccie trip for the Guilford Peloton. First we all booked our flights (Gatwick Marseille with BA) and this went without a hitch. Then we moved on to thinking about the accommodation. It seems that the weekend we want to go, May 21st to 25th, is Ascension and in France this is a national holiday meaning most hotels are already fully booked. After establishing that there would be initially between 10 and 13 riders and one driver I had to find accommodation for us all. Craig at Veloventoux.com was unable to accommodate us but kindly helped us find a cyclist friendly hotel in Nyons. This is about 40 Km into the 2009 Etap course and looks an ideal spot. I have initially reserved 6 rooms and when the number of riders coming stabilises (one has already dropped out because of work) I can finalise numbers and menus with the hotel.

My daughter seems to have a new boyfriend. This news she published on Facebook. She has allowed me to be a Facebook friend so I was able to see the announcement. I Googled him and came up with a picture of him on his football teams website. I copied the picture and sent it to her by email with the question “Is this him” to which I got the reply “I don’t believe you Googled him!” What is a father supposed to do? I just wanted to know he didn’t have two heads.

February 8th 2009 There is no business like snow business

2009-02-10T14:43:00.000-08:00

We had snow Monday & Tuesday (in case you didn’t notice or see it on the news). I woke up Monday morning, looked out of the window. I saw the deep snow and immediately determined that there was no way the trains would be running today and went back to bed. I was right, no trains Monday, or Tuesday (although Tuesday I did very cautiously drive up to the end of the Underground to drop my wife off so she could go to work, but could not risk parking the car and having it stuck/buried in the foot deep snow in the car park, so I wasn’t able to go in myself, I teleconferenced from home).

Cheam on Monday was like a Victorian Christmas scene. Families out walking in the snow. Roads covered in deep snow, very few vehicles, snow ball fights and snowmen everywhere you looked. We made snowmen, had lunch in a local Italian cafe (it was packed with families, not what you expect on a Monday lunchtime) then we walked in the snow over to some friends for a cup of tea, then walked back home to play in the snow again with the neighbours children.

After two days at home and having spent lots of my time building snowmen my back now reminds me of it every time I move. Jolly heavy lifting those snow balls to make snowmens bodies and heads.

My trains to Waterloo were back in service Wednesday morning but every second train was cancelled and my usual train was delayed 25 minutes. It was the same Thursday. The train company’s excuse was that the snow and ice had damaged the electricals on their rolling stock and the engineers were working flat out to repair the trains.

My son was still off school Wednesday but as my wife and I were back at work he had to go to the childminders. The school was waiting on bulldozers to clear the car park and playground of a foot of snow (otherwise parents could not drop off and caterers would not deliver). He went back Thursday and they had a snowman competition in the car park.

No gym visits this week or turbo sessions in the garage.

Saturday Football cancelled as there was snow on ground and it was cold.

Saturday afternoon I wrestled with TACX imagic. It seemed to have blown a fuse and I ended up doing 2 hours without using the computer and video assistance, just my Polar CS600. I completed 32 miles but was again bushwacked. Saturday night I was dead from the training but still managed to stay up (well, lay on the couch) until midnight watching Forest Gump after my wife went to bed early.

Sunday I couldn’t ride as I was helping at a 9th birthday party at Croydon. It was a bowling party with seven 8/9 year olds and one 5 year old. Chaos reigned. I left the house at 9:15 AM and didn't get home until 14:30. Eight boys aged 8/9 and us two fathers. It was hard work. I had no enegy to train so I did admin in the afternoon whilst my wife did homework with my son

Sunday M ventured out on the roads of Surrey with J, another Pelotooner. They were out for 60 Km in the snowy waste of Surrey. I also noticed that another friend cycled from Cranleigh and he commented on Facebook about how few people were out cycling. They were too brave for me.

Sunday night we were all tired and went to a local Toby Jug carvery. Amazing value, all you can eat carvery roast for £7.50 adults and £4.50 children. Total bill was £24 not including drinks from the bar. Food was excellent but the place was extremely popular and very crowded.

All in all not a very productive week and weekend from a training perspective, however, before we complain too much about our weather spare a though for those Australians who are suffering a extraodinary heatwave with terrible fires destroying their houses.

February 1st 2009 How to overtrain!

2009-02-10T14:34:00.000-08:00

Monday, I was down the gym and did an excellent time on the rowing machine. Because I hadn’t trained over the weekend I was feeling good and knocked another 20 seconds off my recent performances, however, I had overdone it. In the evening my boss was having leaving drinks but I had to leave the drinks early feeling poorly. I didn’t really feel better until Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday evening I did manage 2 hours on the bike in the gym. I took it very gently.

I have entered the 2009 Dragon Ride. Last year we booked our hotels at Christmas staying at the Premier Lodge on the M4 service station. This year I had yet to arrange accommodation for Dragon Ride. When I was prompted/ reminded by another Pelotooner I immediately started phoning around the local hotels in Bridgend. It seems all the hotels within 10 miles of the start are already fully booked. Tourism in Wales that weekend looks like it is picking up. I had a brainwave (thats the one and only for 2009 used up) and remembered that my parents had friends in that part of the world and so I rang them. It turns out they live half way around the Dragon but their son and his family live only 3 miles from the start and they have offered myself and M the spare room for the Saturday night. I think we might be babysitting the kids whilst Mum and Dad get an evening out.

M saw a Time VXR Edge advertised by The Green Bike Company on their website. It was an ex-demonstrator going about half price. He was looking for a winter bike so he could put his Look 585 away and save it for the summer (although this Time is better than a winter bike). He bought it and will be testing it over the coming weeks.

Saturday afternoon I did 44 miles with Big G. We had a leisurely ride around Surrey in the good weather and had a good chinwag stopping for tea, a pastie and cake at the National Trust tea shop on the top of Box Hill. Incidentally, I was reading an article in one of the cycling magazines and it confirmed that it is illegal for a cyclist to pass this tea shop without stopping for tea and cake so it is official, you have to stop there.

Sunday I was supposed to be going out with M and I was not looking forward to it as the forecast was bad. I got up, got dressed in my cycle gear, I then received a telephone call from M to say he was feeling poorly. I was relieved I didn’t have to go out in that cold weather. I wasn’t going to let myself off so I went into the garage and got on the TACX imagic. I did two and a half hours of cycling up the Peyresaud and the Aspin. I must admit I was in the easiest gear all the way up the mountains (I was still pushing 160 watts) and after an hour and a half I had to take a 10 minute break. It was a tough workout and I wished that the old bike I am using on the TACK had more gears.

January 25th 2009 Wot no cycling?

2009-02-10T14:32:00.000-08:00

Thursday and Friday I was at a conference (the UK Asset Liability Managers Association at Runnymede, where the Magna Carta was signed just after lunch 1215 AD) and the food at the dinner Thursday night and the lunch on Friday were absolutely excellent. I can certainly recommend the Runnymede hotel even if it is right next to junction 13c of the M25. I think I might have put on a few pounds in those two days. The speakers and discussions were good too.

My son’s football was cancelled Saturday morning as the pitches were waterlogged. At least he was able to go to his tennis in the afternoon (after playing tennis on the Nintendo Wii he got for Christmas he has decided he wants to play tennis again so in our local park there is a group session for children on Saturday afternoons).

I didn't manage to get to cycle though as Saturday I decided I had some jobs to do in the house in Bognor so I drove down there with my tools. It was glorious down there and there were lots of people out promenading along the front. I wished that I could have forgotten the DIY and got the bike out of the garage for a quick cycle (I keep an old Bennotto in the garage down there, old but perfectly useable).

When I got up Sunday morning it was raining heavily and my lawn was a lake. It didn't look like letting up so I texted the lads and cancelled. I had also arranged to ride with Big G but I also texted him to cancel. This meant that I was delegated to take my son to Church Parade (he is a Cub Scout and they have to parade each month) so that my wife could have a leisurely morning with her mother and sister who were over visiting for the weekend from Dublin. That took up my morning and was followed by a roast lunch after which it is not possible to train on a full stomach.

Late afternoon, whilst my wife dropped her mother and sister back at Heathrow (air traffic control will not allow broomsticks to fly cross border unless originating from an approved airfield), I swapped my bike off my old turbo to the TACX iMagic I have borrowed off my brother. It was not altogether a successful exercise as the computer is telling me there appears to be a file missing that is stopping me using all the facilities. I cannot use the default video settings and have to use the real video? I will have to get my brother to look at it next time he is over my way.

What a write off the weekend was for my cycling. As a result I will have to motivate myself to get an extra session in the gym this week to make up.

Have you all got your entry in for the SWRC100 on March 8th?

Sunday January 18th 2009

2009-01-20T13:29:00.000-08:00

This week I was prompted to put together the Guildford Peloton Club Calendar. This list, which is below, is a list of events that members (used loosely) will be looking to do together with a list of other events that may or may not occur. I myself will be doing some of these plus maybe if Team MK are up for it, the odd Audax.

Despite some brave talk about actually forming a club rather than being a stylish group of cyclist who email each other daily with brave and courageous intentions, meet up occasionally for a ride, letch over each others bikes, and have even been known to get together to go to the cinema in Leicester Square (the Guilford Peloton trip to see The Flying Scotsman, a film about Graham Obree, followed by a gourmet burger), nothing ever came of it. There has even been talk about setting up a Guildford Peloton website but these ideas came to grief when a rebellious and more recent section of the members wanted to change the name to the Picon Peloton.

Guildford Peloton Club Calendar

February TBA Box Hill Time Time Trial Leg 1
March 1st Puncehur Sportive near Brighton
March 8th 2009 SWRC 100
March TBA Box Hill Time Time Trial Leg 2
April TBA Box Hill Time Time Trial Leg 3
May 10th 2009 Hampshire Hilly Hundred
May 17th 2009 Etap Caledonia -
May 21st-25th 2009 Etap Reccie - Mont Ventoux
May 31st 2009 Chiltern 100
June TBA Box Hill Time Time Trial Leg 4
June 14th 2009 Dragon Ride -
July 4th 2009 Marmotte
July 20th 2009 Etap du Tour
July/ Aug TBA Family BBQ and Fun Day - (Venue top of Box Hill)
July/Aug/Sept TBA Club Championship - tba (Venue Guilford Velodrome)
July/Aug/Sept TBA Club AGM - (Venue Provisionally - National trust Tea Shop Box Hill)
September TBA Surrey Legs of Steel
Oct/Nov TBA Club Dinner & Dance
October 18th 2009 Gran Fondo Giro de Lombardia -

After last weeks Watership Down Audax in Winchester I had a headache until well into Monday afternoon. Suggestions that it may be dehydration are probably partially right, but some of the cause might be stress around the current demise of my employers HBOS. Either way the headache has now gone away.

Training was sparse this week with just an hour and a half on Wednesday in the garage on the turbo, followed by the usual striptease in front of the washing machine (The Wife won’t let me in the house dripping of sweat) and the naked dash of shame to the shower. I still haven’t set up the TACX IMagic so I am still using my circa 1990 rusty turbo.

Thursday my son had a rugby match (tag rugby). Year 4 was all called to the gym to get instructions at morning break. My son was told that he had been promoted to the A Team which pleased him, and he was even more pleased when they won 8-6.

Saturday I had to take my son to football. His team was missing their best player so it was a real psychological game. Would the team still be good without their best man? If they won it would be a real boost for the team. In the end they lost 3-2 but it was a good game not helped by the second best player getting a blister from his new boots and being out the game whist I rummaged through a dustbin full of smelly old football boots to try to find him another pair that he could use that fitted him better. Once he had the second pair of boots he was back on the pitch.

Saturday afternoon The Wife had me back out in the garden clearing up where the trellis had been removed over Christmas. It was a lovely day for gardening but jolly hard work moving bushes and flowerbeds and filling 15 bags with soil and carting it down the dump.

Sunday was my first ride since the previous Sunday. 8:15 AM I cycled over to Surbiton to meet M and together we cycled down through Esher and Cobham to Shere. The Peloton were meeting in Shere at 10:00 AM and we arrived about 2 minutes late to find everyone waiting. A number live in London and had taken the 9:12 train to Guildford from Waterloo rather than cycle down as M and I had. No time for a coffee in the Lucky Duck! There were seven of us and we cycled north up the hill and along the ridge, down Ranmore Common into Dorking then up Box Hill. There we stopped for refreshment (they had lovely Coffee and Walnut sponge cake; I had to have a piece to top up my fuel reserves). This was followed by an 8 mile circuit at speed around Box Hill and then we all parted at Rykers Café before M and I went back up Box Hill and home (the others headed back to Guilford).

We managed just over 55 miles on the Sunday morning ride. One of the guys had a camera and has posted the pictures on the web. Try the attached link.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/cmoar1/PiconPelotonDoGuildfordDorkingColDuBoxOnAWintryMorning?feat=directlink#

I got home and The Wife advised me she had been clearing up the garden and had another car load to go to the dump. I had to advise her that the dump closes at 13:00 on Sundays in the winter so that wasn’t possible. It wasn't received well as you can imagine, especially as her mother and sister will be coming over from Ireland for a long weekend this week and the house has to be pristine. A pile of bags of soil and rubbish still sitting on the patio awaiting transportation to the dump when they arrive is just not acceptable. In the end we ended up going to Kingston shopping (son needed a new mouth guard for rugby) followed by church.

Jan 11 2009 Where were all the bunnies?

2009-01-12T10:11:00.000-08:00

This weekend I did the Watership Down Audax. As we crossed Watership Down on the single track road with grass growing in the middle of the road, we saw no sign of the famous bunnies. I reckon they have all emigrated to Hollywood or the Caribbean on the royalties from the film.

Last year the Guilford Peloton did an Etap reccie trip to the Tourmalet and Hautacam at the end of May. It was enjoyed by the ten riders who went. There has been talk about a 2009 trip for some months now. This week we committed to the Guilford Peloton 2009 Etap Reccie. This was prompted when I felt that time was passing so I started researching flights, this quickly developed into a full email dialogue which ended with at least 10 of us committing by booking flights. In addition there are another 6 people who are considering joining us.

As for the rest of the logistics, there is a feint possibility that one of the guys can get the use of a holiday home at the base of the Ventoux. Until this idea becomes a reality or gets dismissed we cannot arrange anything else. If we don’t get the holiday home we shall have to start looking at other accommodation possibilities so any ideas are welcome.

One thing we have got arranged is a support driver. Last year a recently retired colleague of one of the members drove the support van that followed and supported us each day. He has kindly agreed to do so again this year.

My son was off to MK this weekend to go to the theatre (to see Heidi) with his grandparents and cousins and to have a sleepover. He was travelling up to MK with his cousins and so I delivered him to their house in New Malden first thing Saturday morning. My son had a good weekend but was a little too confident and outspoken and upset his granddad. He had to phone up Sunday night to apologise.

My wife has been poorly since Wednesday with the flu. She was still very ill on Saturday so the afternoon walk along the river and dinner was out of the question. Instead we went to Kingston shopping and to the cinema to see the film “Australia”. Whilst this is a girlie film it is very watchable, if a bit long, but is a good way for you lads to earn some easy brownie points.

This week my training was a bit light. I did a 10 K rowing ergo on Tuesday night followed by a bike ride. In the rowing session I managed to knock another 30 seconds off the 10K time I did before Christmas. Looks like I didn’t do too badly over Christmas despite all the good food. On Thursday lunchtime I did a 30 minute row and half hour bike ride. I suffered in the Thursday session and it didn’t go well.

My only ride over the weekend was on Sunday, the Watership Down Audax. I spent Saturday night plotting the route from the route sheet on to photocopies of the OS maps I had bought. Sunday morning I left home at 7:00 AM and drove down to Winchester where I was supposed to meet my mate S and his Team MK team mates. When I met up with S, he told me that the lads from Team MK had all pulled out and it was only me and him. Good job I had plotted the route nd hadn't relied on the Garmin that one of the lads was supposed to have.

The next shock was that the organizers had changed the route to avoid riding some of the back roads early in the morning as there was ice on the roads. This put all my planning to waste and S and I had to plot the new route on my photocopied maps. The new route shortened the ride from 70 miles down to 62 miles.

The ride was restricted to 140 riders and was over-subscribed. In the event there were also a lot of unofficial riders. We all left in one pack at the appointed 9:30 start time. S and I were near the front but he very quickly had a problem with his bike computer and we had to stop. We dropped to near the back so had to work our way back through the field. On the first hill the road was covered with ice and we saw the first rider on the floor where he had fallen on the ice. Many people got off their bikes and walked; we stayed on and picked our way up the hill precariously and slowly. As we approached the first checkpoint at 20 miles we had passed much of the field and could see a group up in front of us. We arrived at he checkpoint just behind them. We got our card stamped and had a cup of coffee and a biscuit.

We weren’t there long as the group remounted to leave. We joined them but it was only a couple of miles further on we came upon a hill. The group broke into two groups very quickly, a small group of fast riders leaving the slower riders behind. We were not fast enough to stay with the faster riders and watched as they slowly drew away from us. On the other hand we soon left the slower riders behind and soon found ourselves alone. Over the next 40 miles we saw other riders from time to time but spent most of the time alone.

Going up the hill before entering Watership Down there is a short sharp bit of road just before the top of the hill. At this point my back wheel carelessly drifted onto the verge beside the tarmac and started to spin. I was lucky to get my foot out of the pedal before I fell over. I had to walk the last 20 yards of the hill as it was too steep to remount.

The route back was against a headwind and we felt it all the way. Whilst first thing it had been bright, as the day went on it clouded over. It was quite a bleak afternoon but at least it didn't rain.

At one point we followed the instructions and turned off a main road up a cross country single track road. The instructions said turn "First Right" off of this small road. The first right was a road down to a farm and obviously was not the correct turn. A couple of miles further on (after riding through a gypsy camp) we stopped to look at the OS map. There was no one behind us, and we hadn't seen anyone for some miles so we were a bit (very) afraid that we were off track. A few minutes later after some deliberation we decided we were on the correct route and, lo and behold, just around the corner from where we stopped we found the turning we were looking for.

We did well and despite being tired we pushed on for the finish against the wind. With a mile to go and looking good disaster struck – a puncture. Despite having a new front tyre and tube I got a puncture. I told S to go on but gentleman he is he waited and helped me. I dug many flints and stones out of the tyre whilst 5 or 6 riders went past us.

We got to the finish in 4 hours 50 minutes against the time of the fastest rider who did 4 hours 20 minutes for the 62 miles with 1100 metres of climb. We were well within the top twenty finishers despite the puncture. We were filthy covered in mud and did look a bit odd as if we had been dragged through the muddy fields. This, even though we had mudguards as they were compulsory on the event, but at least the mudguards meant we didn't have wet bottoms or muddy backs.

Handy winter tip for those cold days

2009-01-04T10:05:00.000-08:00

My wife tells me that if you have a chill or are feeling cold, the best way to get rid of it is to do some ironing. She tells me that it will always warm you up and leave you feeling warm and cosy.

Is she being helpful or is this my punishment for being out beyond curfew?

Happy New Year

2009-01-04T09:37:00.000-08:00

The period before New Year is my wife’s busiest period. Normally she works 4 days a week but in December it is full on 5 days a week. It seems the reinsurance industry does all its renewals on January 1st and they leave it to the last minute to play off the various reinsurers and place the business. This is the first year that she hasn’t been sick with flu over the Christmas and New Year period.

I have already had to threaten to confiscate the Wii my son got for Christmas. My son and I had discussion around the fact that as Santa brought it so I can’t take it away, except I pointed out that I pay for the electricity and I was not going to let him use it. He is currently serving a one week ban on both the Wii and the DS. When his mother later threatened to take the DS away for a day, not knowing I had already imposed a ban, she was met with “so what, Dad has already taken it away for a week”.

He also got a new Alonso (in Benetton colours) and Raikennen (in Maclaren colours) for his Scalextrics. So far neither has been able to beat the Ralf Schumacher (missing front wing due to collisions) in Williams colours I bought second hand on ebay the other year.

I always take the Christmas period off to cover the shopping and childcare but that doesn’t allow free time for lots of cycling. I am usually too busy trying to complete the list my wife has prepared. This year as well as the usual shopping, childcare and general maintenance it included digging up a trellis in the garden that had been installed using a lorry load of concrete. A jackhammer had to be hired at great expense to break up the blocks of concrete before two trips to the municipal dump. Good training maybe but it nearly killed me.

We spent New Years Eve at the holiday home in Bognor. My son and I drove down and went to the local swimming baths (surprisingly clean for a school holiday period) whilst my wife came from work later by train. My wife, much to my surprise, actually suggested I take my bike and cycle back. New Years Eve we had a very nice Chinese take away and were in bed by 10:00 PM but I did hear the canon fired from the sailing club at midnight before turning over and going back to sleep.

New Years Day we, as a family, cycled along the promenade, a grand total of about 5 miles. I was on an old mountain bike that is maintained down there. The mileage doesn’t really count so I wasn’t using my Polar CS600. I ws cold and my son moaned most of the way in the way that 8 year olds do.

January 2nd, my first ride of 2009. I cycled the 58 miles back from Bognor, in the fields the drinking troughs and ponds were still frozen, however, the sun was shining as I came through Coldharbour I still had energy in my legs so rather than skirt Col Ranmore I decided to divert up Col Ranmore. I then went on to Mont Box and home. The whole journey took just over 4 hours door to door including stops.

On Sunday January 4th, M and I braved the frost. We were riding out to Shere to meet the Guildford Pootle-oners. On the way we came across a car that had just done a flip on the ice and landed on its roof. Good job too, as if we hadn’t of seen it we would have probably hit the ice and come croppers ourselves. Fortunately no one was hurt. We stopped but the driver (in his 30’s) was phoning his Dad to say he was all right but the car was a right-off.

We met the lads at Shere. We were already in the Lucky Duck drinking tea/coffee when they arrived having done the epic journey (all of 7 miles) from Guildford. We were ready to leave but they were ready to warm up so we stayed in the Lucky Duck for another 45 minutes.

When we left the café time was getting tight for M and I. M had been given responsibility to pick up his offspring from the childminder and then go on to pick up his partner from her work. What didn’t help was me getting another puncture (since getting home I have now put a new tyre and tube on the front wheel). By this time we were well beyond both our curfews so we left the Pootle-oners on the top of Ranmore heading in the direction of Leith and we headed for Mont Box, Leatherhead, Esher and home. M was riding like a man possessed and it was all I could do to hang on to his back wheel. After leaving him (half hour beyond curfew) at his house I cycled the last 4.5 miles home rather slower, despite my own breach of curfew (arrived 50 minutes after curfew). Another 52 miles banked.

2009 is going to be a challenge in a number of ways, work (will I still have a job, and will it be the job I want), holidays (we still haven’t booked for 2009), and my sons hormones (his answering back and constant challenging, both physically and verbally, is wearing thin on the patience of his parents, hence my new years resolution to be more patient and less irritable).

I have already entered for the 2009 Dragon Ride, Hampshire Hilly Hundred, and a ride in the Chilterns which I can’t find the entry acknowledgement for at the moment (that’s organisation for you). I don’t yet have an Etap entry and I am not going to do the Marmotte with the other Guilford Pootle-oners as there is no way my legs are up for that.

I have sent an entry off for another Audax on January 11th. It is 108 Km and called Watership Down. It starts at Kings Worthy near Winchester and I am doing it with my friend S from Team MK and other members of Team MK. My participation depends on The Wife and also on my son’s chauffeuring needs.

One thing I will not be doing is the Atlantic Challenge (rowing from the Azores to Antigua) despite the fact that S of MK is full of enthusiasm to join me on the event. The wife has put an absolute veto on this event. It starts December 15th 2009 but we are leaving it a bit late to get boat and sponsorship, not to mention training. Mind you, the way the banks crashed in 2008, we might just have free time on our hands, there is just the problem of the financing. Anyone know a sponsor willing to put up £35,000 to finance the two of us to punish ourselves across the Atlantic? The race only takes about 70 days finishing some time in February 2010.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-27T19:53:00.000-08:00

Christmas time is a time when cyclist theoretically get new kit, wasn’t Santa ever a cyclist? This year he seems to have forgotten I am a cyclist. No shiny new cycling stuff for me.

My haul this year was hankies, books and DVDs. The BIG ONE was a set of weighing scales with fat, bone, muscle and water percentages. I have set it up and will be plotting this along with all the data from my Polar CS600. My current body fat level is 22% which is in the normal range but on the high end.

Christmas Eve we were present wrapping late into the night. Why can’t Santa wrap the presents himself or get his elves to do it rather than leaving it to parents? Whilst we were quite organised we still had to try to determine who had been forgotten. Christmas Day was dominated by the new Wii Father Christmas brought my son.

The previous week we (my son and I) bought Mum’s present, a sweetie bracelet. Initially we agreed that it was to be repaid over 10 years at 80p a week, however, we finally settled for a one off payment of £5.00 up front from his bank account with me funding the balance. The £5.00 came from his first communion earlier in the year. It gave him an excuse to withdraw money, something he always enjoys. He feels very grown up going up to the cashier and signing his name, but the money in his account running out and he is wondering where the next top up is coming from, oh, and can he have a credit card. Mum liked the bracelet.

Now the cycling, Christmas Eve I did 38 miles around Box Hill with M. At Rykers Café at the base of Mont Box I got a puncture, the 3rd week in a row. Good job I fixed a spare inner tube before going out.

Saturday after Boxing Day, I did 36 miles with Big G. Big G has a saying “Life is like a dog and a lamp post, sometimes you are the dog and sometimes you are the lamp post”. Recently riding with M I am usually the lamp post, and a few weeks ago Big G would have kicked my behind, but due to the pressures of work he has been neglecting his training so today I was the dog and he was the lamp post.

Football news – my son was at Foolham on a training course Monday to Wednesday which he seemed to enjoy. We went to Griffin Park on Boxing Day to see a dreadful game of football, but at least the Bees came away with a 2-0 win.

December 21st The Shortest Day

2008-12-22T00:10:00.000-08:00

I only managed one gym session this week. My son was at his grandparents so I took the opportunity to get an extra long session in with a 10 K ergo, some light rep weights followed by an hour on the bike.

It was a very slow start on the ergo and at halfway it was looking like a record slow row, but with 12 minutes to go a young lady got on the next machine and set it up for a 2000 metre row. I decided to step up the pace and see if I could catch her. Despite trying, the heart rate was at maximum and the rating had gone up from 20 to 30 I didn’t quite manage it but I did manage to catch up with my usual times and knock two seconds off from the previous week’s time.

When I got home I was in trouble with “Er Indoors” for being out so late. The brownie points from taking her to the cinema the previous night to see James Bond obviously not valid.

The rest of the week was full of good intentions but no action.

Saturday I went out on my own around the Surrey Hills. I briefly toyed with the idea of joining the Dynamos run in Richmond Park but could not face the chance that I might get dropped off the back of the slow group.

I went out through Chessington and Leatherhead to Effingham, turned off the A246 up Beech Avenue then up High Barn. I remembered this road from the SWRC 100 last year. What I didn’t remember was the 1:7 hill which was wet and muddy and as I went up the back wheel kept spinning.

I then went along Ranmore Common, down to Westhumble, up Mont Box and along to the junction with the Dorking Road. I decided to add a bit of a challenge s went down Pebble Hil, along the A25 to Reigate then up Reigate Hill and followed the A217 home. Whereas on the way out it felt like the bike was dragging, the wind was obviously behind me on the way home along the A217 as I was belting along over 20 mph all the way. A nice way to finish the ride.

I did 39.8 miles, just short of 40 and I was pleased with that.

I spent Saturday afternoon with my son at Craven Cottage watching Foolham FC Vs Middlesboro. We got free tickets as my son is doing a Fulham football course this week. The stadium was full and the final score Fulham 3:0 Middlesboro. We don’t go very often but Fulham always does well when we go, whereas The Bees (Brentford FC) where we are going on Boxing Day to watch them play Bournemouth, always struggles.

Sunday I went out with M. It had to be quick and early as I had to be back to go up to the British Museum with the family to get ideas for my sons holiday homework, we have to build a Tutankhamen’s sarcophagus. Now some families who have older kids in the school have been digging out the sarcophagus’ that had been made for them, and then doing a bit of restoration (I saw one that was being restored that an au-pair had made a few years ago, excellent craftsmanship but did the child appreciate it?). We don’t have that luck so we are going to have to start from scratch, and no one in our house is artistic except my daughter and she is away at university.

There is a business opportunity for some enterprising teenager who is into crafts/artistic to make these and sell them to the families like us.

Next year we understand that we have to build a motte and bailey castle and village. Parents talk with anxiety and trepidation of the hours and effort that have to go into that project.

Back to the cycling with M. We did 33 Miles out through Cobham and Stoke D’Abenon to Box and then back through Tadley and Epsom racecourse.

I had another front wheel Puncture on Box Hill. Looks like time for a new tyre. I will have to visit the bike shop this week.

As we came into Worcester Park we stopped at Costa Coffee where my wife and son usually go after church on a Sunday. This, of course, was the only Sunday they had gone straight home to wait for me to go up to London. When I telephoned them from the coffee shop with my coffee in front of me I knew I was in trouble. When am I ever going to be in credit on those brownie points?

Sunday night my brother lent me his imagic top of the range trainer. I am looking forward to seeing what difference modern technology has on those turbo rides in the garage.

The Wife is busy at work this week, my son is on a football course at Fulham and I have a list as long as your arm which includes buying the turkey and Christmas food shopping, starting/finishing Christmas present shopping, digging out a trellis in the garden and taking a load of rubbish to the dump. Not much chance of a sneaky bike ride.

December 14th What a washout

2008-12-21T12:58:00.000-08:00

I managed two 10 kilometre rowing ergs in the gym during the week. Getting faster (but scores are still not anywhere near where they should be) and quite enjoying getting back into rowing on the machines.

Saturday I was intending to go out on my own, however, when I got up it was pouring with rain, no point in cycling. Shortly after we received a telephone call to say that the football was called off.

We decided there was no alternative so we arranged to take my son and his mate to the cinema to watch Madagascar 2 followed by MacDonalds. Actually not a bad film as kids films go.

Sunday I had arranged to go out with M but when I got up at 7:15 am I had a text saying he was sick so was not going to be riding. I decided as I was up and dressed in my cycling gear that I would no waste the opportunity to get in a few miles and decided I would go out with The London Dynamos.

Only 6 of us turned up at Hampton Court Bridge at 9:00 AM although we did see a big posse of Dynamos ride past but we were not sure if they were the 8:00 am ride or on their way to a race. They just waived as they went past.

We went off at quite a pace. After about 15 miles we started going up the serious hills towards Shere. Going up the hills my glasses steamed up and legs ceased to work and I kept falling behind. This was very disheartening. At the top of the ridge before going down into Shere one of the lads decided to turn back. As we got down to the A25 I decided that I was not going to be able to keep up the pace going up the hills into Peaslake and up to Leith so I decided to take the slightly shorter route along the A25 and through Abinger to Leith.

As I went through Gomshall there was a puddle I had to cycle through which was up to my bottom bracket and resulted in very wet feet. The waterproof neoprene overshoes keeping the water in.

Shortly thereafter I had a choice of turning off the A25 right up Leith hill via Abinger or left up the 18% hill of Critten Lane. I decided that I was too wet, cold and tired to do Leith so I turned left up the hill. As I was going up another cyclist stopped me and told me that there was a flood at the top of Critten Lane just before the junction with Ranmore Common Road. He told me to lift my bike over the locked gate into the field, climb over, go diagonally across the field and then go over another locked gate into Ranmore Common Road. When I got to the top there was the puddle with a reasonably new Volvo estate stranded in the middle, puddle half way up the doors as the 4 X 4’s splashed past. I did as the cyclist recommended and tramped across the muddy field (after having a good but cruel laugh at the Volvo driver).

After riding home I had managed 48 miles.

In the afternoon I had to go to friends Christmas drinks. I had obviously caught a chill as I was shivering even though the house was warm (loads of babies at this party) and I was wearing two pullovers. I was also very, very tired.

Later I had to drive my son up to MK to stay with his Grandparents for a few days. I was so tired watching Chris Hoy with the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. Well done Chris.

Appeal following death of cyclist in Richmond Park 18.12.08

2008-12-21T11:43:00.000-08:00

Police are appealing urgently for any information or assistance to identify a man who collapsed in Richmond Park on Wednesday 17 December.

Police were called shortly after 3pm to cyclist who had fallen from his bike on the road that runs through the park between Richmond Gate and Pembroke Lodge.

The man was taken by ambulance to Kingston Hospital but sadly died a short while later. A post mortem will be arranged.

The man was not carrying any form of ID with him and so far poice have been unable to establish his identity. He is described as a white man, possibly in his 30s, about 6' tall and of thin build. He has short fair hair, no facial hair and wore Lycra cycling gear in black and grey. The bike has a white and black "MONOC" frame.

The incident is being investigated by the Royal Parks unit, based at Hyde Park. Inspector Sarah Matthews, said: "At this stage, we are not sure if the man fell accidentally or if there was another reason for him falling off the bike. We are appealing for anyone who may be able to identify him or for witnesses who were in the area and may have seen him prior to the incident. "We would also like to hear from anyone who thinks they may recognise the description of this man and his bike.

Anyone with any information is asked to call 020 7161 9630 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 to remain anonymous. **********************************************************************

December 7th 2008 Winter Wonderland

2008-12-11T12:27:00.000-08:00

Sunday morning M and I ventured out at 8:00 am to the icy lanes of Surrey. The temperature was below zero and the grass was all icy where Jack Frost had done his worst, and he had even managed to cover the roads.

We like to think we were like the “Torvil & Dean” of the cycling world, riding on ice, others may unkindly have described it as the “Laurel and Hardy”.

It was dastardly cold and we wrapped up warm and worked hard to build up some heat, and no matter how good your gloves were you were going to get cold hands.

As we were both on tight curfews from our wives it was a quick 31 miles around to Mont Box and back. I was home by 10:15 am. I must say that I felt in good form. I am not sure if it was the training sessions I had done during the week (on the rowing machine, see below) or the fact that I hadn’t been out Saturday so had extra energy, or just that I knew it had to be a short ride which was well within my capabilities.

M had been out on Saturday and had done a hard but short ride and he was not quite in such good form, so rather than chasing him along the A217 from Banstead to Cheam (a lovely fast 4 mile bit of road if you are going in the right direction), it was me setting the pace, somewhat slower than he usually sets.

We made it back without incident, no punctures this week, no slips on ice and no accidents. Others weren’t quite so lucky. One of the Guilford Pootle-on was in a collision with a white van and only just managed to struggle home before his derailleur gave up the ghost. Another Pootle-on’er reported that a bunch from her club had a number of slips on the ice and one member was still in hospital while others had pelvic bruising, something I painfully remember from last November.

My sons exam results started to come through. The results are a mixed bag that prompted us to request a meeting with the teacher. This has not been a catalyst to household harmony especially as the more you try to talk to him about it the more smart remarks you receive back. Bah, 8 year olds! At least he did well in French. We await the end of term report!

It is the school carol service this week and he made the last three in the trials for the solo spot (a bit like X Factor at the school). He did not get selected but a pleasing result to get that far. He will be singing in the junior choir on the night and we will be there to watch.

He also won his football on Saturday. At half time they were only one goal up, but in the second half they fielded the stronger players and won 6-0. That is the end of the autumn season and they are undefeated in the league and the cup. Next week is a match brought forward from March next year.

Training wise I have decided that a bit of cross training is required. I used to be an oarsman but haven’t been in a boat for two years now (not since Kingston Head 2006). As both rowing and cycling use the thigh muscles I decided it was time to get back to doing a few 10 kilometre rows on the rowing machine at the gym. This will strengthen not only the legs but the back and give the upper body a workout. I got two in last week, very slow but it is rewarding to get back. I also did two short (one 30 min and one 60 min) sessions on the static bike. On that front it looks like my power has been rising and I am back over 200 watts average for the hour (but at average heart rate of 150 plus, cadence 90 rpm).

Pootle-on everyone but be careful out there!

Rain Rain Go Away

2008-12-02T12:45:00.000-08:00

The associates of the Guilford Pootle-on arranged to meet Sunday morning at Guildford for a posse ride of the Surrey Hills. How did we get on - read about it below.

It has been very tense in our house the last week building up to my 8 year olds exams which were Thursday and Friday last week and Monday and Tuesday this week. I don't know who is more tense, my son or his mother! Last week my wife had told him that he was expected to do his best to which he replied in a blasé manner that all he had to do was get 50% - red rag to a bull, Mum went mad and he was told in no uncertain terms that 80% was the benchmark. Wednesday night at bedtime we had tears and my son told me (his interpretation of the conversation with his mother, not as she tells it) that Mum had told him that unless he got 80% he was going to loose his Nintendo DS for a year!

It must be said that my son is like I was, he does not always live up to his capabilities and usually scrapes through with the minimum. His last set of exam results were disappointing.

Roll on Tuesday night when this period of exams is over.

During the week I only got one training session in which consisted of a 7500 metre session on the rowing machine and 25 minutes on the gym bike so I was desperate for exercise by the weekend.

What a weekend - where is that Indian summer we were expecting, what happened to the drought we usually experience, what has happened to out mild winters? All questions which, no doubt you too were asking at the weekend. Before I go into my training, the Guildford Peleton ride, and a story of woe and punctures, let me tell you about my sons football.

Saturday morning I had to attend my sons football match. Whilst at the beginning of the season he wanted to be in goal (saw it as thee easy option) he now has more confidence and wants to be out on the field more. The problem is both at school and on Saturday he has shown some skill in the goal and the team wants him there on guard. On Saturday he was in goal for the first half with the promise of being out the second half. Before half time they were 2-0 down (not a position they are used to) and then the opposition was awarded a penalty! The team was downhearted (especially as it was felt the penalty was unjustified). The ball was struck and my son stopped it. You could hear the relief from the spectating parents.

Half time came and in the second half tables turned. He was allowed out of the goal, his team got back the two goal deficit, and had the opposition under pressure most of the time. Their goalie was kept very busy and there were a lot of near misses, posts and high balls. The match ended a 2-2 draw.

Saturday afternoon I slipped out for a run. After 20 minutes and a third of the way around the circuit my calf suddenly went, and boy was it painful. I couldn't continue running, it was raining, I was in a long sleeve Ron Hill thermal top and running shorts, and it was cold and had started raining. I hobbled half a mile to the nearest station (didn't have any money,card, ID etc). The station fortunately wasn't manned and the barriers were open so I went on to the platform and the train arrived 5 minutes later. There was no inspector on the train. I got off at my home station, again unmanned and hobbled home. Once home I wanted to warm up and to know how bad my calf was so I jumped on the turbo for 45 minutes.

The calf stood up to the turbo so I arranged to meet M and J at Hampton Court at 9:00 AM from whence we would ride down to Shere where the others, meeting in Guilford, would ride out to meet us.

Sunday morning, after a late night at the school ball at the Tithe Barn Hotel at the base of Mont Box (we got home 1:00 AM), I got up first in our house. The weather first thing wasn't too bad. The three of us met (M, J and me) and had a gently but damp cycle down to Shere passing various groups huddled around punctured wheels. When we got there M went off in the direction of Peaslake to get an extra hill under his belt while J and I went to the Lucky Duck Tea House, and whilst some of our clothing was on the radiator drying off, we enjoyed coffee and a mince pie.

The other four who met in Guildford joined us, and immediately one young lady decided that she would abandon (not everyone automatically dresses for English weather). We only got about three miles down the road before M got a puncture and we all stopped to assist. At this point J decided she too had had enough and headed home. We went up on to the ridge (up the 18% hill) and along to Ranmore then down into Dorking. At this point we stopped at the bike shop as one rider needed new gloves. The plan was to ride up from Dorking through Coldharbour to Leith Hill before returning through Abinger Hammer, however, the rain got heavier, the temperature colder, and time was moving on. Once we were ready for the off we decided it was better to call it a day. Captain Turbo P headed back along the A25 to Guildford whilst the rest of us (4 of us) headed for Mont Box.

No sooner had we got out of Dorking than I got a flat tyre. As I was at the back I dropped off and the others didn't hear my call or notice my absence. They stopped at Rykers at the base of Mont Box and M came back looking for me. M and I sheltered in the underpass and working together (freezing cold wet hands at this point) changed the inner tune. I am a man who usually repairs tubes first rather than replaces them [tight, traditional, stupid?] but there was no way in that weather I was going to try that. With the CO2 already used on M's tyre we had to resort to using a pump which meant for the rest of the trip my tyre would be soft.

We then joined the other two who had warmed up on a cup of tea at Rykers and headed up Mont Box and out to the A217 towards London. M and I left the others when we got to Cheam and they headed off towards London. We went home.

I was cold and wet when I got home. We had only done 50 miles in 5 hours (including stops). The wife would not let me in the house so I had to go into the garage and do a freezing striptease in front of the washing machine (which resides in the garage) before streaking through the house to a warm shower. I didn't even stop to rinse off the bike so I will have to get around to cleaning and lubricating it this week.

All is quiet on the Western Front

2008-11-24T10:50:00.000-08:00

Busy fighting the cold front coming from the North at the moment.

Whilst I was not able to get out over the weekend due to the weather and other factors (football, school fair, dinner with friends, school exam revision), I did leave a puddle on the garage floor doing 22 miles (1 hour 25mins) on my ancient turbo (I have not yet had the chance to get hold of the imagic with the Ventoux programme that my brother has agreed to lend me). Even in the garage with the door closed I had to wear two layers this snowy Sunday morning.

The ancient turbo produces such a racket that I observed a mouse scurrying under the garage door out into the cold to get away from the noise. Perhaps if things don't go well here after the Lloyds takeover of HBOS I could go into pest control.

The coming weekend is still in the hands of the gods, or The Wife.

Got the result of the cross country I did last week in Richmond Park, I came 75th out of 137 male finishers. I am pleased with that. I don't know whether I will keep up the running, I think it compliments the fitness so I would like to try and get a few runs in over the winter.

Cross Country

2008-11-19T13:48:00.000-08:00

This Wednesday I had the cross country race in Richmond Park. After only three lunchtime runs of four miles each in preparation and a very sore calf I was ill prepared for the cross country run in Richmond Park.

Monday I was looking for my spikes ready for Wednesdays cross country run. I know where I last saw them (OK it was some time ago, maybe three years), in the bottom of a box of shoes under the stairs; were they there when I looked? – No.

I tipped he house upside down looking for them but the shoe fairy appears to have stolen them.

This necessitated an urgent trip to the running shop Monday lunchtime to buy a new pair. Fortunately they had a couple of pairs in Runners Needs off Bishopsgate, the first was in fluorescent green (New Balance) and the others (Saucony, my regular make) in gold. Why do they only make them in loud colours when they are goig to get covered in mud?

I purchased at great expense the Saucony shoes in gold.

Wednesday came, it weas a lovely bright sunny day and I met my HBOS team at the Bank of England Sports Ground in Priory Lane Roehampton. We all went to the start just inside Roehampton Gate and watched the women’s race. Our ladies team won the ladies team trophy.

I put on my gold spikes (brand new and not worn in) and took off my warm clothing. I think I was the only runner on the start wearing long sleeves. The race started and we were off for 5.75 miles of hills, mud, and sweat. I was lying about the middle of the field and spent most of the race 10 metres behind one of my team mates. I managed to overtake him at one point but he came back. I struggled up the hills but kept going making up most of any ground lost on the flat.

With a mile to go I could see the finish and it was flat or downhill all the way. I put in great effort and caught my team mate, overtook him and two others on the run in. This final sprint was despite the feeling I had had for some time that I had a stone in my sock at the back of my foot. Once I finished I quickly took off the spikes to discover a very big blister on the back of my foot. That is going to be painful for a few days for sure.

I didn’t score for the team (only the first four team members home score) but my target was 45 to 50 minutes and I achieved 41:45. I think I was about half way down the field of 160 runners. This would put me on for a 44 minute 10K which is what I achieved about three years ago on more training. I was very pleased with that result. Our men’s team was third in the men’s event but our vets won the Vets event.

HBOS has gone out on a high. Lloyds was about the only financial institution that did not have a team in today’s event.

Hey-Ho Off I ride to Bognor

2008-11-19T13:44:00.000-08:00

Saturday my wife agreed to take my son to football and stand on the touchline whilst I cycled to Bognor Regis. She would then drive down later after football with my son and his cousin and we would stay Saturday night in the family holiday home.

I hate cycling on my own so Saturday morning at 9:30 am I gave Big G an early morning call to see if he wanted to join me for some of the ride. As he had had to wake up to answer to the telephone he agreed to join me for half my trip to Bognor.

We went through Epsom and Leatherhead and over Leith Hill then headed down through Forest Green and Ellens Green, stopping there for a coffee and a croissant before Big G headed back along the A29 and I went off to Bognor on the A29.

It took me five hours door to door (4:16 actual time on the bike) and I was knackered when I got there. I had clocked up 58 miles and I could not have cycled back if I had wanted to, my fitness is that bad.

My wife and the kids were already there when I arrived so I cycled straight to the café on the front (The Lobster Pot) and was enjoying beans on toast with sausage and a cup of coffee when they arrived.

My son had won his match and remains unbeaten this season - a very good result. His Saturday team have won the league and are proceeding through the cup. His school team have also remained undefeated.

On Sunday I came back by car with the others rather than cycling.

Etap Logistics et al

2008-11-16T12:22:00.000-08:00

Have you considered the logistics for the 2009 Etap yet? I have and have been working on a cunning plan.

As yet I do not have an entry or permission to put one in, but I was brave enough to bring the subject up last night with The Wife.

The way I introduced the subject was along the lines of, "How about next year we holiday in the Auvergne area of France in late July. There is a nice four star caravan park with excellent facilities near Allegre. The site has British built luxury mobile homes (see Eurocamp or Keycamp intersite for details) 4 swimming pools, restaurant, canoes, tennis, fishing, lots of walking cycling and rafting, it is near the sea (sort of) and, oh, the Tour de France passes through the area about that time and we could actually be there to watch a stage".

"Oh, and funnily enough the Etap is on the same week in the area".

After I had recovered from the stern glare, I stood my ground as I was lectured on how I needed to spend more time with my son, not out training for the Etap or wandering around like a zombie all the time exhausted. My response (not that I had my strategy all planned you understand) was that I stood up well on the Guilford Pootle-on reckie of the Tourmalet and Hautacam this year with little training, and my entry into next year would be on the basis that training not be a priority like in 2007, and that my attempt would be on a best efforts based on whatever fitness I have.

Besides, we usually holiday at a similar camp in the Southern Vendee (near La Rochelle) and it would be nice to see a different part of France.

Anyway, the conclusion I have taken from the conversation is that I can enter the Etap, but participation still requires more discussion. The intention would be to drive down leaving on the Friday July 17th and the caravan site might be the accommodation solution. The family could fly down and be picked up from the airport any day and they could fly home as well.

The advantage from a travel point of view is that I would get to drive there and back at my own pace without the back seat driver, the wrong type of music on the CD or the constant bickering that family harmony engenders on long car journeys. You may also remember that in 2007 M and I missed the Paris Periphere and ended up in the centre of Paris, this time I have TomTom with French maps.

This might also solve the problem that the start and finish are some 167 Km apart, in that The Wife could drop me off and pick me up.

Now if the other Guilford Pootle-on families plan holidays in a similar vein then there might be other synergies that could be advantageous.

My big problem now is getting an entry only package. As Sports Tours are sold out of entry only anyone else got other sources?

Trust you are all training this weekend. I am hoping that I will be allowed to cycle the 55 miles down to Bognor Regis this weekend (to the family holiday home there) whilst The Wife takes my son to his football Saturday morning before driving down to join me.

What we also need to kick start training is the reintroduction of the Guilford Pootle-on Monthly Mont Box time trials (3 laps of a 8 mile circuit around Mont Box), oh, and has has anyone started planning a 2009 reckie trip yet?

Brentford FC for the FA Cup - Come on you Bees

2008-11-10T13:30:00.000-08:00

Big G and I were planning to get a Surrey Hills ride in on Saturday morning. Big G usually rides in the afternoons at the weekends to allow him to catch up on his sleep as he rises early during the week to go to his important investment bank job where he works long hours. On this occasion he had kindly agreed to go out early to fit in with my family duties.

Saturday morning was looking OK when I got up. I was dressed in my baggy cycling lycra and had the bike and cycling related paraphernalia in the middle of the kitchen being prepared for the ride whilst as a family we were trying to breakfast in the same room, my son was watching CBBC on the television whilst playing on the Nintendo, homework books on the side awaiting attention, family love and harmony blossoming (not).

The weather outside was getting worse and I was considering how wet I was going to get when I received a text from Big G to say that it was pouring where he was and he had gone back to bed. I telephone him just to make sure he didn't go back to sleep.

I decided that he was probably right so I took the bike back into the garage and hung it up. I then psyched myself up for a session on the turbo. As the turbo is somewhat noisy and the kitchen was being used for homework I was banished to the garage for the session. At least this meant that I didn't get bits of rubber over the kitchen floor while The Wife was present to notice.

I proceeded to do an hour and twenty minutes on the turbo, garage door open, facing out the up-and-over door into the Close and the pouring rain watching the comings and goings of the neighbours.

This time there were no punctures. The new tyre (or old recycled tyre, see previous entry) was much smoother and seem to change the whole gearing meaning the data was not comparable to previous sessions so a new comparative profile will need to be built up before I can see how not training enough means no improvement.

I burnt my boats a little (negative brownie points!) in that my turbo session did not finish until after the time my son was supposed to leave the house for his football match. The Wife had to take him and stand in the rain on the wet touchline for the warm-up and first 15 minutes of the match in rain heavier than she was prepared for. When I turned up having had to catch the bus up to the park she just was a little sopping wet. I was left with detailed (and unworkable) instructions as to how he should be wrapped up warm and dry after the match until she arrived to pick us up. As you can imagine this requires his agreement and co-operation which was not going to be forthcoming as kids of 8 do not feel the cold until it is too late. He won his match (he hasn't lost this season either at school or in the Saturday league) and I had to take the tongue lashing when she turned up to pick us up and all he was wearing was a soaking football shirt and shorts (with me holding a bag with the dry kit). Why me not him, he was the one who had refused the dry kit!

In the afternoon I had to chauffer him up to north London to go to a go-kart party in a leisure centre in Northwood which he enjoyed but it was after 6:00 PM before we got home.

Sunday morning training was missed as it was Remembrance Sunday and the Cubs and other uniformed groups had church parade which meant I had to accompany him. More importantly Sunday afternoon was the Mighty Bees (Brentford FC) playing last years giant killers Havant and Waterlooville in the FA Cup on ITV so we spent the afternoon watching Brentford go through to the next round with a 1-3 win.

Big G has told me whilst he didn't get out Saturday, he did get out on Sunday on his Bianchi (only Mont Box and back), however, whilst he stayed dry the wind meant it was not a pleasant experience.

Cross Country - oh no!

2008-11-05T12:44:00.000-08:00

I received confirmation that my entry for the inter-banks cross country in Richmond Park on November 19th went in - rather unfortunately. I emailed the organiser of the HBOS team with the excuse that I had done my back in and that I had not been able to train but he was quite happy for me to run anyway.

So, as I have to do this cross country I thought I had better start training for it. At lunchtime I jogged down to Westminster bridge and back (about 4+ miles). It took me some 42 minutes whereas it used to take me 34 minutes only 4 years ago - a full 42.5% regression. I was going so slow I was overtaken by a number of people whereas no one used to overtake me, I even got overtaken by a woman!

I was worried about my back going again. This afternoon I can feel twinges but as yet it has not ceased up. We shall see how it feels in the morning.

When I got back to the gym after the run I did 1000 metres on the ergo (rowing machine) and 20 minutes on the bike to finish off the session and followed that up with a roast gammon dinner with roast potatoes, veg and gravy at my desk( he boss was away today so no one keeping tabs on my time).

So, if anyone can do me a programme that, if I follow, will enable me to achieve sub 5 minute miles on the day and not get injured in the training running up to the event - or suggest an inappropriate cocktail of performance enhancing drugs and pain supressants that will have the same effect, then let me know.

Half Term Training Week

2008-10-31T11:48:00.000-07:00

I have had a weeks holiday to chauffer my son to and from football training and to work on all those jobs that have been mounting up. In addition, I wanted to start some cycling training as I am now at my heaviest ever and a bit of training might 1. Help my disposition (generally depressed as my job, my savings and my pension have been blown out of the water by the financial crisis), and 2. I might manage to loose a few of those extra pounds.

Actually, I have had two weeks off, this week and last week, as my sons school, being a private school, gives the kids two weeks off for this half term (you pay them all this money then they don’t keep your kids as long as the state schools!). The first week was spent just resting followed by a long weekend in Dublin visiting the out-laws (but I did sneak off to our Dublin office for a few hours on Friday and watched the dealers as the pound collapsed against the US Dollar, glad we went to Disney this year when the Pound was strong).

I got very few of the jobs I set out to complete done, and I got even less of those jobs my wife had wanted me to complete done. I did spend a lot of time on the telephone with the Inland Revenue, my HR Department, and my tax accountant trying to sort out the fact that the method of calculation used by my employer (the “Averaging method”) for my beneficial loans tax on my P11D has overestimated my liability by more than double due to a further advance taken out just before the end of the tax year. Trying to get the figures for the “Accurate Method” so that they can be presented to a Tax Inspector is like trying to get the lunar buggy back from the moon!

Anyway, less of these rants and down to cycling business – did I actually do any training – I am pleased to say I did.

I hate going on the road alone firstly for safety reasons and secondly because it is no fun unless you are sharing it with someone else, plus of course the cold and damp weather put me off, so I did not go out on to the road.

I have an old turbo trainer circa 1990 (bought new from Holdsworthy in Putney to get me fit after I fractured my neck playing rugby) which I use as I haven’t got around to putting before the Household Finance Committee a proposal to acquire a modern fluid trainer (not that he Finance Committee is willing to consider any more cycling expenditure at the moment and I, unlike the Chairwoman, The Wife, do not have the ability to fast track expenditure and get retrospective approval). This is a hefty rusty steel contraption with a roller under the back wheel attached to two fan wheels upon which is permanently mounted my Raleigh Record Sprint (Reynolds 501) circa 1985.

(Santa Hint – anyone wanting to buy me a new iMagic fluid trainer for Christmas is welcome to do so).

Each day this week I have been on the Turbo Trainer in the kitchen knocking out an hour to an hour and a half with an average heart rate in the high 140s and a cadence of 90 rpm. This has been painful but therapeutic. My two bike computers have been on the handlebars showing me that I have been maintaining the pace and keeping up the work. The whole house smells of burnt rubber after each session and I had to mop up the sweat off the tiles on the kitchen floor. In addition I keep finding bits of rubber from the tyre which I missed in the clearing up exercise and which when stepped on leave nasty black smears on the floor tiles.

Monday to Thursday went by without any incidents but Friday was like a car crash. After 30 minutes I got a puncture (the tyre had done 460 miles on the Turbo and had melted and was coming apart at the seams). In order to save time, rather than fix the puncture I dived into the garage and removed the wheel from my Raleigh Quasar (again 501 circa 1985) and fitted that to the turbo bike. Forty minutes later, don’t I get another puncture! I was annoyed. I then had to get off the Turbo and fix both wheels. The original wheel also required a new tyre. Fortunately I had kept an old racing tyre from last year (Specialized Roubaix 23/25) which will hopefully do for the near future (but I suspect it is probably too soft) and next time I go into Corridori in Banstead I will have to get myself one of those special tyres designed to be used on a Turbo or Fluid trainer.

Both punctures were old repairs where the heat generated from the roller had melted the repair and it had failed.

All in all, all things considered, not to bad, 90 miles over 6 hours in 5 days. More than I have done for a long time. The question is will I be able to keep up the training when I return to work next week?

Etap course announced

2008-10-31T11:46:00.000-07:00

Of course the 2009 Etap course was announced last week. The Guilford Pootle-on riders were waiting with baited breath – was it going to be the Alps or the Pyrenees again, was it as had been rumoured going to be Mont Ventoux?

The day arrived. There was a mad scramble by each person to get an entry only package off of Graham Baxters Sports Tours. A newsletter went out to 7000 people announcing that they had 100 entry only packages, however, they were sold out within 3 hours.

A number of the Guilford Pootle-on riders applied in time and got hold of one of the packages. Others like me who could not get to a computer all day did not. My application was too late. Looks like I will have to buy a package.

At this stage I must admit that The Wife banned me from the 2008 Etap as I was in a bit of a physical wreck of a state after the 2007 Etap and I expect that she would not entertain me entering the 2009 Etap (so at this stage I have not mentioned it). However, if I just happened to have an entry and could get the training done surreptitiously (like, how do you surreptitiously train for the Etap, any ideas?) then she could hardly refuse me permission to go to France for the weekend of July 20th 2009 “training”. If the Etap was on that weekend and I just happened to have an entry, well, I would just have to go along with all the other lads.

I do fancy the idea of ticking off a few of those famous climbs. Despite not having an Etap entry in 2008 I did go with the Guilford Pootle-on on the reckie trip in June and did the Tourmalet (from both sides) and the Hautacam.

I will not be doing both La Marmotte and the Etap in 2009 as a number of the Guilford Pootle-on are planning. They got the idea from the London Dynamos who in 2008 did La Marmotte and the Etap in one weekend!

La Marmotte looks like a step too far for a young man like me.

Who names their Bicycle?

2008-10-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

What is it about the ladies of the Guilford Pootle-on? They have names for their bikes!

The associates of the Guilford Pootle-on were recently having an email discussion comparing their collections of bicycles. I know it seems sad to you, the general public, grown people retaining bicycles long after they have been replaced with updated models, and admitting to it, but to us cyclists, we retain some sort of connection with the bike and are reluctant to let it go. Myself, I have some 8 bikes which go back to the 1980s, all in working order.

Anyway, we digress. Names for bikes? Who has ever heard of the likes of it? Our Guilford Pootle-on gals it seems name their steeds. One young lady admitted to having a Flet Cyclocross called Valiant, a Bianchi Nironi road called Hottie and a 456 called Trouble.

Mind you is that as sad to our male associate who has admitted spending every last minute staring at his new Scirotto!

Training, Injury and football

2008-10-13T13:22:00.001-07:00

One of my readers made a comment that I shouldn't train to hard and get injured!

Well, I was feeling good so I thought I would do a slightly longer run. I kept it slow but did 5 miles. During the run I felt a niggle in my leg and back but nothing serious.

When I got home I sat down for a cup of tea, but when I went to get up my back was locked!

Time for the Ibuprofen.

The following day my back was so stiff and I was really hobbling around. I was watching my son playing football when the organisers came over and asked me to referee. I advised them that could hardly move but they insisted they were short and I was needed. "Just stand in the middle and blow the whistle" they said. I reluctantly agreed but advised them it would only be for an hour whilst my sons match was on the next door pitch.

Did I draw the short straw, have you ever tried to referee 24 six and seven year olds?

At the end of an hour of debate with these six and seven year olds and when my sons match was over (they won 6-3) I needed to collect him and go home. The boys on my pitch were supposed to be playing on for another half hour so I spotted a parent on the side of the pitch and told him, he was either taking over as referee or the football was over. After he got over the shock he took the whistle and got on with it. Delegation, the art of good management.

A week later, many Ibuprofen and a trip to the physio and I am still walking like an 80 year old. The anxiety of the financial markets isn't helping. I think the cross country running is a no goer.

Fitness - what fitness?

2008-10-13T13:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went out with M for the first ride in the UK since I did the Audax in July. The weather was supposed to be sunny and 19 degrees, but at 8:30 AM it was foggy. Whilst we did encounter sunny spots during the ride I kept my waterproof on the whole ride.

I was on the Specialized Roubaix Expert. It was a brand new replacement frame compliments of the insurance company and Specialized after I accidentally dropped the old one and the carbon crossbar smashed against a step writing it off. This was the first time out for the new frame.

We did 51 miles and I admit it, I was whopped by M (I wasn't just going slow to make him feel good).

After 40 miles we reached Mont Box and I had to climb up the Hill at between 5 and 6 mph in my easiest gear (and I was riding a triple) and was overtaken by anyone and everyone. After tea M rubbed it in by sprinting back along Epsom Race Course and along the A217 between Banstead crossroads and Cheam with me struggling behind wheel sucking when I could (and there were times where I dropped off and M had to stop and wait for me).

I can forgive him as by the time I got to the top of Box Hill he was at the front of the long coffee queue (meaning I didn't have to queue up or wait any time for refreshment) and bought me a coffee and some sponge cake whilst I gulped down a gel.

When we left the Tea Shop at the top of the hill we passed an accident where one of the Kingston Wheelers Cycling Club had been in a collision with a car. The Police were in attendance and an ambulance had been called. He was lying in the road yelling about the excrutiating pain in his back. We wish him the best for his recovery and it definitely served as a reminder to us to ride carefully.

Changing the subject and talking about fashion and lycra (who was?), M and I followed two girls and a bloke for a few miles out of Cobham and up Hungry Hill (their red shirts said their sponsor was Optima, a tri club). One of the young ladies was well built (quite big built but muscled and toned, attractive in this case) but was wearing underwear under her lycra shorts. We couldn't believe the faux pas that’s why we had to follow behind her for so long to make sure we could believe our eyes.

Cross Country Running

2008-10-01T12:51:00.000-07:00

Back in blighty.

I arrived back from Australia on Friday lunchtime. It is so nice to look down on the English countryside as you fly into Heathrow and feel the crisp air as you get off after being cooped up for 25 hours on an aircraft or in a terminal in Dubai.

Actually I was very lucky and got upgraded to First Class on the 14 hour leg from Sydney to Dubai. I can recommend First Class in Emirates. In First Class you get your own little cabin, flat bed, personal mini bar, 23 inch television and food cooked on demand. I got a good 6 hours sleep and watched some films – I can thoroughly recommend a film called “The Children of Huang Shi”. It is not yet out in the UK but was a good film of a true event.

The upgrade was probably to make up for my stationary bag mysteriously disappearing from my luggage on the outward journey and just as mysteriously appearing in someone else’s bag. When the other passenger arrived home in South Africa he opened his bag only to discover my stationary bag containing my business cards, memory sticks, keys to my desk, best pens and computer peripherals. Fortunately he has contacted me by email and hopefully Emirates will arrange for the stuff to be returned to me at some point.

Anyway, TRAINING!!! As I am going to be unable to get some cycling in over the next month due to family commitments I have decided to do some running as this is something that can be fitted in easier than cycling. As an incentive to run I have entered the Interbank Cross Country event in Richmond Park in November. I have previously run this event for Barclays, TSB, and Chase Manhattan. This year it will be for HBOS.

I used to be a formidable runner with a 10 mile PB of 59:50, 10K of 36:20 and half marathon of 1:23, but that was when I was young and 20+ lbs lighter. Eight years ago I managed a 39:50 10K and two years ago I managed a 44 minute 10K so I am getting somewhat slower over time.

I have'nt done any running for a while so I need to get back into it. My cunning plan to get fit is that if I run three runs a week until the event I should be able to finish but I accept that I will struggle not to be last. Fortunately all the fast runners in HBOS are based up North and won’t want to come to London for the day which means I should get on the team (not guaranteed). My motivation is that the more I run the easier the event will be and the better I will do.

So far this week I have done two runs.

The High and the Mighty

2008-09-30T14:17:00.000-07:00

That John Wayne film turns out to be "The High and the Mighty" and has just been repeated on Australian TV.

I was just going to bed when my colleague telephoned me to say that the film was on. I turned on the TV and blow me down, the film was just where I left it. I sat up late late watching it.

John Wayne made San Francisco and landed on the last drop of fuel. What a hero. It was certainly a life and death epic. Funny thing is, according to Wikipedia, the airplane used in the film disappeared over the pacific in real life. The wreckage was never found.

24 hours more here in the southern hemisphere then flying back to blighty.

Would you hug a koala?

2008-09-30T14:08:00.000-07:00

There is an animal park somewhere between Sydney and the Blue Mountains where you can pay to hug a koala. Why would you want to pay to hug a smelly sharp clawed, rough haired, sleepy, heavy, bear when if you find a eucalyptus tree you can throw stones at one until it falls from the tree then hug it without having to pay?

This weekend was the Sydney Marathon and half marathon. This meant that half the city roads were shut down from early morning to mid afternoon. The marathon was won by one of the usual African athletes, however, the time was rather slow at 2 hours 19 minutes and he won by 5 minutes. I am sure one of you guys could have given him more of a run for his money.

Saturday morning I decided to sleep in as Friday I had a bit of a"Sticky Bed" incident. Don't jump to conclusions! All I was trying to say was that I was tired when I woke up and couldn't be bothered to get up out of my bed, thus I was late to breakfast, which I didn't rush,then late to work (just later than usual, i.e. 9:00 AM rather than theusual 8:15 AM). Anyway, Saturday I didn't rise from my pit until 9:30 AM, had a leisurely breakfast then went shopping for tat and souvenirs.

Saturday night I went to the business lounge in the hotel (we are lucky enough to be on the Club floor) and finished off their stock of Bacardi. I had had a late lunch so I didn't bother with dinner.

Sunday morning I had to meet a colleague at 5:30 AM. He was going to drive us up to Pymble where we were going to meet some others and cycle. As I left the hotel at 5:15 AM (dawn was at 5:47) the city was alive with Marathon runners heading towards the start and girls in short black skirts and high heels on their was home from clubs (don't quote me on those interpretations of their intentions, they are assumptions on my part, for all I know Australians might have a precedent for running marathons in short skirts and high heels). We drove up North of Sydney to Pymble, Bobbin Head Rd, and parked. Here we met 3 other guys.

Together we cycled Pymble to Galston Gorge to Berowra Waters to Bobbin Head and back to Bobbin Head Rd, Pymble. A 61km route through three gorges with 3 big hills climbing out of those gorges. It was nice being the second fastest as it took the pressure and angst out. I cycled out of the gorges then turned around and cycled back down to meet the slowest rider then cycled back up with him.

The scenery was lovely, the hills no more than 8% and the temperature rising to the low 30s.

As usual, I had the usual equipment failure. This week I managed to keep the saddle on the bike, however, my cleats came unscrewed from the bottom of my shoes. I was climbing out of a gorge and I was thinking to myself how the cleats had rather a lot of play and thus may be worn out. Just after I got to the top I suddenly found my right shoe coming adrift from the pedal. The cleat stayed on the pedal and the separated from the shoe. Fortunately I didn't loose too many screws and managed to reattach the cleat. I then found that the left cleat was also about to come off so I tightened that up as well.

We got back to the car just after 10:00 AM. As I was hardly warmed up I decided to cycle along the Pacific Highway back into the city, some 20Km (I did 85 Km in total). The nearer I got to the city the more marathon and half marathon runners I saw returning home (strangely, none in high heels and short skirts).

After cycling across Sydney HarbourBridge I got back to my hotel at 11:10 AM. Unfortunate as breakfast stops being served in the Clubroom at 11:00 AM. I put my bike in my hotel room then still sweaty and wearing my baggy lycra shorts and cycling shirt I popped my head around the club room door. Breakfast was being cleared but a swift grab at a plate and a raid on the fast disappearing buffet rewarded me with fruit juice, a couple of slices of toast, and a couple of croissant (one ham and cheese and one chocolate). The staff took pity on me a brought me coffee and a pot of tea. Breakfast was enjoyed along with the Sunday papers.

After breakfast I had a shower and I laid on my bed (in my boxers and a tee shirt) watching a John Wayne Film. I never saw the end as a colleague telephoned and invited me out for afternoon coffee. In the film John Wayne was a co-pilot on a plane flying from Hawaii to California and I saw up to the point where they had gone beyond the point of no return, one engine had failed, a fuel leak meant there was insufficient fuel to make to coast, the weather was bad and the sea below was rough, the radio wasn't working properly and the only radio contact they had was with a ship below who was relaying their messages, one passenger had shot at another after accusing him of sleeping with his wife, they were running out of cigarettes (everyone was chain smoking), and they were throwing the luggage out of the back door of the aircraft to save weight and avoid crashing into the drink.

Does anyone know whether John Wayne managed to save the plane?

Early morning rides don't agree with me

2008-09-30T14:02:00.000-07:00

I left the hotel at 5:15 AM in the morning - before dawn, on the trusty BH steed. It was a bit chilly and most riders had long sleeves and tights whilst I have only got summer kit so was dressed in shorts and short sleeves. I got to Centennial Park here in Sydney, their equivalent of Richmond Park I suppose (but a lot smaller) and met the guy I was to ride with. We proceeded to ride around the almost flat but windy 3.8 Km circuit. Lots of other riders on shiny bikes with Cervelos and Pinarellos in abundance. First lap 31 Kph, 2nd lap 34 kph, third lap 37 kph, fourth lap 38 (with me at this point having to desparately wheel hug).

I ended up doing 7 laps including two short hill climbs just off of the circuit (well, I did two hill climbs, the other guy did three whilst I sloped (hill/slope, joke, get it?) off to do my last two laps a bit slower on my own). I understand that he did his usual 10 laps in the end.

I was back in the hotel at 7:10 AM, in plenty of time to meet my colleague for a 7:30 breakfast.

I was shattered at my desk with sore legs and no interest in the piece of work I was supposed to be doing and a long evening of business phone calls back to blighty ahead.

Sydney Australia

2008-09-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

The Head of IT at the Branch here in Sydney agreed to lend me his triathlon bike for the weekend (together with his helmet, shoes, tools etc. I brought my own customised baggy lycra from the UK to maintain standards). I went out to his house Friday night to collect the bike. I brought it back into the city on the underground (unlike London where bikes are not allowed on the underground, the Aussies are very accommodating and don't bat an eyelid when you lift a bike over the ticket barrier).

The bike is a very nice BH with an aluminium frame, carbon forks and fitted with Ultegra. The gearing is a comp on the front and a 12/25 on the back. The cranks are 172.5 compared to the 170 I usually ride. It also has a built in seat post which means there is very little saddle adjustment without a hacksaw.

Unfortunately the bike is a little big for me so I am stretching to get the cranks around. I can just about cope but it gives me a disadvantage and is not exactly comfortable when the reach to the handlebars is also a stretch.

There are a lot of cyclists here at the branch. A guy on the IT Projects team and one of the Front Office Sales guys arranged to take me out on Saturday morning. At 7:45 AM I came out of my hotel looking for an estate car taxi to take me to the rendezvous point some 30 km north of Sydney at a place called Terrey Hills where we were going to ride in the national park. The taxi driver was not the sharpest of people and looked puzzled when I told him where I was going. I showed him the Google maps print out of the map and instructions on how to get there. He brought out a large magnifying glass and then told me he couldn't read it because it was not in colour. He then proceeded to drive whilst trying to look up the place in a colour road atlas. I decided that safety might be an idea and took the book from him and opened the atlas at the correct page. I then navigated whilst at every set of lights he squinted at the atlas through the magnifying glass. We thankfully arrived safely. I wouldn't want to be his passenger later in the day when there was more traffic around.

Once we were all assembled (there ended up being four of us) we proceeded up the road. About 5 Km out I stood up on my pedals to climb a hill and my saddle fell off! I discovered that the retaining bolt had dropped out some way back along with the retaining mechanism. I resigned myself to a painful ride back to find the nearest bike shop to buy a new saddle. Two of the lads went on and I and one other started back. About 1 Km later the guy I was riding with spotted the parts in the road and I was saved. I rebuilt the saddle (aren't they complicated!) and we set off again.

We did 50 Km over a hilly terrain in the sun and heat. It hit 31 degrees. We even saw the beach where the Australian soap "Home and Away" was filmed.

On the way back into town I was going to catch the train, however, due to track works there were no trains, just a bus replacement service. The driver surprisingly allowed me on with the bike and we started a slow drive back to town. The bus got more and more crowded until we were playing sardines for the last 20 minutes.

I was shattered in the afternoon and after a plate of room service spaghetti bolognaise and a banana split (the banana split was off the childs menu) was just falling asleep on my bed when a colleague called me to invite me to join him and his partner for coffee and cake in town. I was home asleep in my hotel bed by 8:00 PM

On Sundays there is a big group that rides out from Kings Cross (not that far from my hotel in the Central Business District) at 8:00 am and I was planning join them for a ride. On Sunday morning I got up and looked out the window. It was pouring with rain. I did venture down to reception to stick my head out the front door of the hotel just to assure myself it was not going to stop before I decided against going and went back to bed.

A little later when the rain abated, I met up with a colleague and we walked from Bronte passed Bondi up to the ferry at Watsons Point (about 6 miles) stopping occasionally for coffee. At one point we stopped to ask a spotty youth whether there was a route we could walk that went along the coast or whether we had to walk inland. He replied that we might as well take the bus. He looked very perplexed when we insisted that we wanted to walk and asked our question again - I mean, why would anyone want to walk when you could take a bus?

Tomorrow morning (Tuesday) I have to be in Centennial Park at 5:45 AM for laps (a bit like Richmond Park) before work, and I think some of the lads here have got some other challenging rides to test me - oh dear. Well, at least I am getting some riding in.

The Poconos and The Delaware River

2008-08-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

I've been working in New York, The Big Apple.

Cycling had to take a back seat, however, I did manage 83 miles in the gym the first week and 23 miles the second. During the weekend in between I went to the Poconos Mountains in Pennsylvania with my Friend D and his family.

He won't cycle with me after my last visit to his house 4 years ago when he couldn't wear me down (that was before I though of entering the Etap). We kayaked and cycled that weekend near Princetown New Jersey.

This time we had a great weekend in the Poconos Mountains in Pennsylvania

My mate D is Head of Risk at a European bank in NY and I went to stay with him and his family at their holiday home. It is beautiful up there in the Poconos mountains.

Friday night I took the train from NY Penn Station out to Princetown Junction where he lives with his family (wife and two kids, boy and girl). We had dinner then drove off to the Poconos. It is about a 2 hour drive from there. His holiday home is a three bedroom house (mansion more like) on a gated community (estate) around a golf course and country club.

Saturday morning it poured with rain (really heavy it was) and so we watched a DVD and played cards with the kids.

Saturday afternoon it cleared up nicely and we went off and walked along the Appalachian trail for about four and a half hours (I've got the insect bites to prove it). Then we went to the country club to go swimming then dinner at the Golf club.

Sunday we went to the Shawnee Resort. This is a hotel / country club/ holiday resort on the Delaware river (look it up on the internet, it is just as you see on the old movies). The US open golf used to be held here (the golf course is on an island in the middle of the Delaware River). We rented a raft and for over four hours and drifted down the Delaware River (the Delaware is the river that supplies drinking water to NY city). It was a lovely warm day and the river is crystal clear and amazingly warm (I did ask if the warm water came from a nuclear power station or factory upstream and was assured it didn't as there wasn't one). We spent the afternoon throwing each other off the raft, swimming and enjoying the sunshine.

My son would have loved it and we will have to go up there with him sometime.

It turns out that this resort used to be a bad debt for my current employers who ended up buying it at the end of the 80's and then selling it on after investing in it. Small world eh!

Sunday night we drove back to New Jersey. Everyone (except my mate who was driving, someone had to) was asleep in the car. We then had dinner (pizza) outside the back of his New Jersey place on his patio before I caught a late train back to the city.

The one downside was that near the end of the rafting trip I was thrown in the water and my mate landed on top of me (his mean kids and wife threw us both in). I lost my glasses and we could not find them on the bottom of the Delaware River (only 5 feet deep and clear). I had to finish the trip blind. Fortunately I had a set of prescription sunglasses in the car so I wore them for the rest of the day.

It was a bit strange coming back to NY at 11 PM Sunday night wearing dark glasses. Fortunately I had an old pair of glasses at the hotel which I wore for the week. My wife ordered a new pair of glasses for me in London. I got them this morning (unusually fast as the glass has to come special order from Germany (Zeiss) as I am a very high prescription). Well done Boots Opticians. At least I will be able to see clearly on our fortcoming Disney Florida holiday.

The Guilford Peloton is proposing a Sportif at Lake Como in October this year and a Pyrenean Raid in 2009. There is also bold talk about the Marmotte but that is something for the young, the bold and the foolish in my current opinion especially as there is talk of combining it with the Etap on the same weekend.

Straight On At Rosies

2008-07-14T12:02:00.000-07:00

I did my first audax on Saturday in Nottingham. What an experience. The day was windy and cool but most importantly it remained dry.

My first Audax (a sportive is a race that pretends to not be a race, an audax is not a race that pretends to be a race) was 125 miles around Nottinghamshire with only 1100 metres of climb.

I had been invited to join two fellows (one being my friend S) from Team MK on this audax. I stayed overnight at S's in MK and we were up at 4:30 AM for a cooked breakfast. 5:45 A joined us and we set off for Junction 28 on the M1.

We arrived in plenty of time, checked in, had a biscuit and a cup of tea. There were only 42 riders in the event. I assumed we could start at our leisure, WRONG! It was a Grand Prix type start at 8:00 AM. I was wandering towards the toilets at that time and had to let the riders all pass in front of me before I could cross to the conveniences. Then, after completing that task I returned to my bike and the three of us set off to catch everyone else - except that I had not adjusted my saddle. We stopped and I got the Allen key out and did the adjustment.

After getting going we kept up a steady 20-22 MPH slowly going through the field. At just after 22 miles we caught the main bunch (of about 8 riders) and settled in the pack. When we got to the first stop at 38 miles (Rosies) the faster riders who arrived before us (about 4 riders) were enjoying their snacks.

The prevailing wind on the outward section was a cross wind.

We left Rosies after a muffin and a tea. There were about 4 riders on the road ahead of us and the bunch were behind. They caught us some 10 miles later and we split a few miles later when there was some confusion over the directions and we stopped to check the map. The last 10 miles before the half way point you go out and back on the same route. The route then splits and you return in a westerly circle. The advantage of this is you get to see how far people are in front of you and we were quite pleasantly surprised to see that there was not much between us and the leaders. We stopped at the turning point and watched as others got there and turned.

We got on our way after 10 minutes or so. The next checkpoint was another 13 miles. This turned out to be a very pleasant cafe serving excellent cakes and cream teas. All the riders were gathered there and we stopped for refreshment. We sat outside at a table and chairs enjoying the atmosphere. The bunch offered to wait for us but we were tiring and they were obviously faster than us at this point so we let them go.

We got going again and passed through a number of villages, one hosting a wedding which was just finishing as we passed. Everyone was coming out in their finery returning to their cars. I remarked to S about one particularly large cuddly lass in a low top, short skirt and high heels. Just after that I got my punishment as we rode into a strong head wind and I found myself in front of S and A. It was a nightmare and the speedo was dropping. It was a struggle to keep up 10 mph. After what seemed like an eternity (but was probably only a couple of miles) we turned sharply and got the cross wind back.

Strangely, as they had left the cafe before us, the bunch caught us up. It seems that their navigation skills were not up to those of A. We jumped on the back, wheelsuckers that we are. A few miles further I turned around and S and A were no where to be seen. Decisions, do I stop and wait or continue with the bunch. I was feeling a bit tired so I stayed with the bunch. As time went on I kept falling off the back. With about 15 miles to go one of the older veteran gentlemen who was also suffering stopped (there were two guys in that bunch over 70 and another younger guy on an old steel 531 frame!). I stopped with him, not from good manners but from exhaustion.

I consumed half a loaf of Soreen, another gel and a lot of water and after about 5 minutes we set off again (I was fully expecting S and A to pass me like S had done on the Dragon last month). The veteran gentleman got off and walked at the next hill whilst I continued in my lowest gear (34 X 28).

I struggled to the finish alone. It was definitely longer than advertised which is always a challenge at the end. A time of 8:36 and a top ten finish. The veteran gentleman came in closely followed by S and A (13 minutes after me). I was collapsed with a cup of tea and a biscuit at the time. As usual, my face caked with salt.

The organisers were telling us that they also organise 300 and 400 Kilometre events - not that I will be doing them.

We reflected in the car on the way home how it had been a good day, but we were all tired.

Post Scrip added by S

Duncan,

Sorry, but I had to clarify/emphasise a few things:

1. We actually visited five different counties on this ride (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire, South and North Humberside... and we went very close to Lincolnshire)!
2. You correctly pointed out that there was little climbing, but at times the headwind over some very flat countryside made it feel as if we were climbing mountains!
3. The organiser mentioned that they had a 600k coming through Alfreton at the half-way stage. I'm still struggling to understand how that could be done in a single day!

Cheers,
S

What Happened to the Roubaix and where did the Look 585 come from?

2008-05-19T11:34:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago four of us did a ride from Worcester Park down to Bury Hill (just before Arundel) and back. This a ride of some 90 plus miles. There was M on his Look KG381, My brother C on his Shorter (his Roubaix was in the cycle shop awaiting a new cassette), R on his Lightspeed and me on my Roubaix. We followed the route of the SWRC 100 down to West Sussex.

It was obvious the R and C were a lot stronger than M and I. This was most obvious when we were climbing Bury Hill and they went up the hill as if it was flat.

On the way back R lost a spoke and his wheel went out of true. Fortunately we were in the vicinity of Pulborough station and he was able to get a train home.

I struggled to keep up with M and C the rest of the way.

Once we got home I put my bike out in the back garden leaning up against a table. The wind blew and it fell over, the crossbar striking a stome step. It damaged the carbon. I subsequently took the bike to my local dealer, Corridori cycles in Banstead. They arranged for the bike to go back to Specialized who advised the bike should not be ridden. They have kindly offered to provide me with a replacement frame at a discounted price - now there is customer service. I am now waiting for the replacement frame and the rebuild.

In the meantime I saw a Look 585 for sale on ebay. My friend M has just bought one new. My other friend Big G has a Look 595. The 585 on ebay was secondhand but never ridden. The bidding was low with two hours of the auction to go. I placed a bid and was quickly overbid. I placed another thinking 1. it would be below the reserve price, and 2. I would be overbid as my bid was very low. This was good as I had not got permission from the Finance Committee to make such a purchase.

Two hours later I was the sucessful bidder and my bid had reached the reserve. I was very suspicious as the seller only had one piece of feedback and there are lots of counterfeit bikes around. I contacted the seller and he gave me his story. I googled him and his story checked out. The following Saturday my brother C and I (as the seller lived in his area) went and collcted he bike.

The bike was as described, unused last years colours, and highly spec'd. The seller was in the Cycling business and we hung around talking to him for about an hour.

When my wife got back from being away at her mothers for the weekend I had to fess up and look for retrospective acceptance from the Committee. She took it well saying "I knew you were looking and it had to happen".

Hampshire Hilly Hundred 2008

2008-05-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I am exhausted, sore (bottom and legs) and a bit down after the HHH yesterday. My own fault for not getting enough training training miles in this year.

C (my brother) and I turned up early at the start in Alresford (outside Winchester) at 7:15 AM, assembled the bikes and registered before the rush. The day was slightly chilly but bright. Neither of us was feeling in particularly good form. In addition, as my Roubaix has been confirmed as written off by Specialized, I was on my new Look 585 which I had only ridden for a total of 50 miles and to which a new 11-28 rear cassette was fitted only on Friday (to go with the 50-34 on the front).

We lined up on the start line and got away at 8:14 AM. C whizzed off and I was moving in my own time through the slower riders. At about 20 miles I passed C repairing a puncture. It was amazing how many people had punctures, more than I have noticed in previous races. I was pleased that I had taken the time Friday night to fit Specialized Pro Armadillo tyres (23/25).

C caught me up and I was just behind him at the first checkpoint/feed station at 25 miles. After the stop I didn't attempt to follow him, I just let him go. He is strong this year.

I had noticed that my heart rate was particularly and unusually high during the first 25 miles and had been trying to throttle back whenever I noticed. At about 40 miles my thighs began to cramp and I knew I was in trouble. At the second checkpoint/food station at 50 miles I paused longer than usual to get my breathe back and refuel. I then left there with the intention of just surviving.

The hills got to my legs and at about 65 miles I had to walk on one hill, not because of not having the gearing or because it was too steep, but because I was exhausted and cramping.

This week I have changed from Ultegra cleats to Look cleats. I must say the Ultegra are more comfortable to walk in but the Looks are easier to use. The other thing I noticed was that with Look cleats you need to remember to take off the cleat covers (Ultegra do not have cleat covers). Before the start I was cycling around the car park trying to work out why my cleats would not clip into the pedals. It took a minute or so before I remembered that I hadn't taken the covers off the cleats - embarrasing.

The HHH has a final loop of which includes a good hill and makes the course a round 100 miles, but you can elect to take a shortcut from here and do a 87 mile route and avoid the loop if you so desire. By 70 miles I knew I was going to have to take the shortcut even though it pained me to do so. I reckoned that I would have been walking the hill and would be a safety hazard on the flat if I did not. I had already had a coordination problem and had ended up riding in the ditch beside the road and breakneck speed before a miraculous recovery. I got some compliments off those riders following me as to the way I skilfully managed to extract myself (it didn't feel like skill at the time, more like panic).

At the 80 mile feed station/checkpoint I grabbed a chair and sat for 10 minutes trying to get my strength for the 7 miles back to the start/finish avoiding the loop, but still including one last hill. I finally got the motivation to rise from my chair and struggle on. Up the final hill I got past the photographers before again dismounting and walking a few minutes. The first of the 100 milers were passing me at this point (last 6 miles of loop is same as the shortcut) and I got a few comments about being careful the photographers didn't turn around and snap me walking.

I was a bit disorientated when I got back to the start/finish. I had trouble finding the car initially. My result was 5:48 elapsed time for 87 miles (1750 metres of climb) including time stopped at feed stations. A bit of a come down after completing the whole 100 mile course in 5:50 last year.

On the bright side, the new bike went nicely, I didn't get any punctures or fall off (or scratch the new bike) and I was pleased with the way it rode.

I dismantled the bike and packed it away in the car and was sitting on the tailgate of the car drinking the flask of tea I had brought with me when C finished. His result, a fantastic 5:56 for 100 miles (and 2250 metres of climb), gold standard, even though he had the puncture.

One month to go until the Dragon, and a lot of work to do if I am going to finish.

I don't like girls!

2008-04-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

This is the usual statement of my 8 year old son.

On Sunday whilst we were time trialling around Box Hill my son was left with a friend of my wife who was walking her dog on Box Hill. R's wife was doing the timing so their 7 year old daughter was also with the friend and her dog.

When I finished the time trial the two kids were in the process of taking my car apart from the inside out whilst reading comics, clowning around and listening to music on the radio. Whilst we all enjoyed a well earned cup of tea and the National Trust cake the kids were in the National Trust gift shop spending their pocket money buying tat together.

As we drove away from Box Hill my son made the remark - "H is really nice, when are we meeting up again".

R made me aware that Liquigas, the Tour de France team are running a childrens camp (for 7 to 12 year olds) in the summer in Italy and he is considering sending his daughter, I have suggested to my wife that our son might enjoy the camp, however, she thinks he might be a bit young?

Subject: Guildford Peloton - Box Hill Circuit Time Trial II - Sunday 20th April Results

2008-04-26T09:43:00.000-07:00

Well done to all those who completed the 2nd Box Hill TT. In contrast to the first race 5 weeks ago conditions were perfect - dry, 9c and a gentle breeze. This had a bearing on times with all riders recording improved times. A and Turbo P knocked more than 10 mins off their previous times. A timed his race expertly, saving his fastest effort until the last lap and is very close to breaking the 1-30 mark. This would be an amazing achievement on a mountain bike. Turbo P's 1-27 confirmed that he is on course for etape glory. Dynamo and MK Steve put in good performances which will improve as their familiarity with the course grows.

The third race is set for Sunday 18th May, 0930.

The results (splits in brackets)
1st R 1.17-55 (26-12, 25-39, 26-04)
2nd M 1.23-54 (27-11, 28-57, 27-56)
3rd Dynamo 1.25-44 (28-20,28-28,28-56)
4th SC 1.26-35 (27-10, 29-56,29-29)
5th Turbo P 1.27-20 (28-59,28-55,29-26)
6th MK Steve 1.29-27 (29-24,29-38,30-25)
7th AC 1.31-35 (30-39, 31-20, 29-36)

With two races left, M has a four point lead over SC.

Standings
M - 18
S C - 14
Turbo P - 10
R - 10
Dynamo - 6
AC- 5
MK Steve W - 3

1st = 10 pts; 2nd = 8 pts 3rd = 6 pts 4th = 5 pts 5th = 4 pts; 6th = 3 pts.

Thanks everyone who made a donation to Sport Relief. We managed to raise £60. We have now raised £120.

Sundays Box Hill time trial

2008-04-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

Monday

R.
I am pleased to announce that the second Box Hill time trial is set for 20th April. We will start at 0930 adjacent to the NT café on top of Box Hill. Riders will depart on 2 min intervals. They will complete 3 laps of the 8 mile Ball Buster course. This the second in a series of 4 races. M is the current leader.As per the first race, I will ask for a donation of £10 per rider. Unless there are any objections, I will donate all the money raised to Sport Relief. I need to have your confirmed entry by Tuesday 15th April. I will then send the final arrangements by email on Thursday 17th April. Feel free to forward this invite anyone you think might be interested.

All the best

Dynamo
My wife is away this weekend so I have sole charge of my 8 year old. This means either I volunteer to do the timing or the timer volunteers to babysit. Alternatively my brother convinces his family to come down to walk on scenic Box Hill with my son.

Any suggestions?

R.
My wife will be doing the timing and she will bring my 7 year so she would be happy to look after him.

Dynamo
That's great news and allays my wife’s fears that I was going to abandon him at the top of Box Hill.

That confirms me for the TT.

Note, as I carry less weight on the descents and don't have the "power thighs" of M for the ascents I will slower than him, at least on the second and third lap as I will be employing my usual tactics of going off hell for leather then fading badly after the first climb. In fact I think my fitness is dreadful this year. Anyway, the TT gives me an excuse to taper my training this week and load up on Pizza and Pies. CU all Sunday

R.
There are days when I feel like that could be a good idea. See you on Sunday.

Dynamo
Is that good idea; (1) feeling like abandoning your child on Box Hill, or (2) feeling that fitness is not up to standard, or (3) feeling like Pizza and Pies, or (4) feeling like M is going to beat you?

There are days where I feel any or all or are applicable. M and I have just been out this lunchtime to indulge in the Italian food option (I am trying to feed him up and take away training opportunities to slow him down for Sunday) Regards

Tuesday

Dynamo
After being very good yesterday and having a Chicken & Avocado salad at lunchtime and doing a session at the gym last night followed by Sushi, I sinned big time today. I have had a chocolate muffin, lots of chocolate biscuits and for lunch I had 3 sausages, Yorkshire pud, potato, onion gravy and baked beanz. This is part of my cunning plan to increase my weight for Sunday to give me a downhill advantage. My diary is full for the rest of the week so unlikely to get any more sessions in the gym before Sunday so no risk of dropping those hard gained Kilos.

Turbo P
Dynamo - sounds to me like you are playing those usual mind games! I've seen you powering along with all those London Dynamos trailing in your wake! Nice try though. However, I can say that from personal experience, whilst eating pies etc is brilliant for speed on the downhill, it does tend to mar the overall experience of the Ascent...

Dynamo
Aahhhh - the Ascent... Yes I have noticed that since I am getting heavier it coincides with the ascents getting harder, but I don't think the two facts are related. I put the fact that the ascents are getting harder down to the fact that as M loses weight and gets fitter (1) he is getting faster, and (2) he creates a smaller drag coefficient for me to follow in and thus I have to work harder to try to keep up with him. So nothing to do with Pies, Cakes, Pizza and sausages I assure you.

Turbo P
Just one quick request,though - please can you promise NOT to eat that combo for breakfast on the day of the TT? The resultant "tailwind" could prove hazardous to those cycling behind you...(or is this yet another tactic??)...

Dynamo
All is fair in love and war (and time trials)!!!

SWRC 100 (Km) Sunday February 24th 2008

2008-03-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

It a good ride, the weather was excellent, the course challenging but fun, well organised and a good result.

I was a bit worried as the course included a Polesden Lacey which is the 20% gradient that I fractured my pelvis on in November last. On the start they announced that for safety reasons that hill and the particularly tiring Ranmore which followed were being dropped but another hill had been added in the middle (and don't worry it more than made up for the hills dropped).

The organisation worked well and everyone was very friendly. I managed to get around without loosing my way although I missed one sign but fortunately another rider called me back on course. Even the distance was accurate. My Polar CS600 shows 99.8 Km and my CatEye shows 62.77 miles.

I should think there were some sore legs in the morning, mine were a bit stiff. A few people must have been smelling of embrocation at their desks.

No doubt all you readers who took part took the time to lovingly clean your bikes and do any neccesary maintenance as soon as you got home after the race so it is ready for training next week

I enjoyed the ride, and was very pleased to get under the 4 hours mark (3 hours 59 mins). Over the last half hour my legs were cramping but all I could think about was pushing to break the 4 hour barrier (or was it pushing to get higher up that enormous tea queue, they did rather underestimate the demand for refreshments).

I am a bit worried as to how S from MK on his Specialized Allez (with a slashed tyre on the start which had been lined with a plastic bag to protect the tube) and Big G (riding with Team Bianchi) managed to be right on top of me time wise (4:01 and 4:11). They did very well and at this rate give them another month and I will be trailing in their wake.

The official results came through and I was 82nd out of 276 finishers. Whilst my time of 3:59 (just ver 16 mph) was respectable someone managed it in 3:16 (was that on a motorbike, can anyone cycle that fast?).

Not my luck at the moment

2008-02-19T14:02:00.000-08:00

I may have won £10.00 on the lottery over the weekend and Sainsburys were selling Valentine roses off cheap on Sunday just in time for The Wife's return from a week away with her mother, but yesterday and today haven't been quite so lucky.

This morning I waited 20 minutes for a train on the cold station platform. When it did turn up it was crowded. After getting on and standing in the crush whilst the train was stationary for 10 minutes we were told the train was faulty and was being withdrawn from service. We all had to get off back on to the cold platform. Ten minutes later another train arrived, sardines was not the word for the crush all the way to Waterloo. I got to work half hour late.

On top of that. I was in the gym last night. I did 5000 metres on the rower (21 mins, 2:05 avg @21 spm) and then proceeded to sit on the cycle planning to do an hour. 59 minutes into the cycle some bufoon tried to adjust the machine next to mine and kicked the wire for my machine tearing it out of the plug. Everything went blank and all the data was lost. I must admit I gave him a glare and may have made a rude comment or three. I then had to report the damage to the reception desk (as the bufoon was not interested in reporting the damage he had done) and I could not get the inclination to finish off the last minute, so I went home .

Longest ride so far in 2008 – 95.5 miles 1500 metres of Climb

2008-02-16T13:25:00.000-08:00

It was a cold sunny day Saturday – cold being the word.

I arrived at M’s at just after 10:00 AM after getting my chores accomplished. Neither of us felt great, and M was a bit anxious having got in very little riding lately.

The planned ride was Bury Hill (on the A29 Bognor Road just before Arundel) which we anticipated to be a 80-90 mile ride.

We rode out through Esher and Fetcham, Effingham, Leith Hill and on to Mole Street that runs parallel to the A29. It was a slow start and we were suffering as we arrived at the top of Bury Hill.

The plan was to stop for lunch at a roadside café about 8 miles back up the A29 the other side of Pulborough from Bury Hill, but tiredness got the better of us. With the computer already showing 52 miles we stopped at Hikers Café at the top of Bury hill. There is no inside to Hikers Café as it is a kiosk (and don’t ask for tomato or lettuce in your cheese sandwich as you will be told in no uncertain terms “we don’t do those vegetables thingies”) so we had to drink our coffee outside in the cold.

We were not looking forward to riding back against the cold headwind so agreed to take the A29 all the way back as it is the flattest and fastest route. It was hard work. After Ockley we turned off the A29 and headed up into the Surrey Hills through Coldharbour. At Dorking we agreed to miss out Ranmore (will we pay for this lapse in the season to come?). We went up Mont Box at a steady 8.5 mph and stopped at the top for another coffee.

At this point we knew we had 12 miles to go giving us a total of 95 miles back to my house. It was getting dark so we set off. Four miles from home M had a puncture!!! It was getting dark, we were on a main road (A217 at Banstead junction) and our hands were freezing. We could not find anything in the tyre that might have caused the puncture so we put in a new inner tube and kept our fingers crossed that there was nothing in the tyre that would cause another immediate puncture. In the dark with only one rear light between (and no front lights) us we set off for home. Fortunately there were no other incidents.

I think after about 75 miles, once we got to the top of Coldharbour we began to feel better and by the time we got home we were moving well (it may just have been that we could smell home).

A good 95.5 miles and 1500 metres of climb.

No ride tomorrow (Sunday) as I have a "List" to try to complete, including a trip to Sainsburys, before I have to be at Gatwick at lunchtime to pick up my wife and son.

Friday Night and I am "Nobby No Mates"

2008-02-16T13:11:00.000-08:00

Friday night everyone goes out and like everyone else I had plans. Unfortunately at the last minute those plans were thwarted so I was “Home Alone”. The best offer I got was to babysit three children with Big G who was doing a friend a favour and having the children for 24 hours. I settled for washing my hair; catching up on the ironing and watching TV – Dorothy Domestic me, make someone a good wife.

Saturday I was supposed to be riding with M, however he told me during Friday that he had childcare problems (I suggested that Graham wouldn’t notice one more but M was of the opinion that his partner would not stand for that). As Big G was still babysitting all day Saturday and Turbo P was in the Lake District on matrimonial duty it was looking like I was going to be riding alone.

Riding alone is not something I like as in the event of an accident there is no one to look out for you. In addition it is boring riding alone.

My brother rang me and suggested that I be in St Albans at 7:30 AM (St Albans is an hours drive from home) for a ride from St Albans to Leicester to visit his mother in law. I was not averse to this despite the early start as I wanted to ride and my daughter is at university in Leicester and it might give me a chance to meet up with her.

In preparation for the early start I dismantled my bike and loaded it into the car.

No sooner had I finished the loading than I got a text from M to say the childcare situation had been resolved and he was riding – that gave me a problem – who do I let down.

My wife and son are away this week. However, my wife had left me with a list o tasks to accomplish before she returned. Some of those tasks could only be accomplished on Saturday and riding to Leicester would prevent me from ticking those tasks off.

I rang my brother to give him the bad news, he was out and I spoke to his wife and gave her the message. I felt bad as I did not want him to have an accident riding alone, especially as he was starting so early and it was going to be a cold night leaving ice on the roads, and I told his wife that. Unfortunately for him his wife thought about this and banned him from riding alone Saturday so he did not get out.

I did also leave the message that he could join us in Surrey.

I rang M and agreed on a run to Bury Hill (on the A29 Bognor Road just before Arundel) starting at 10:00 AM. The 10:00 start would give me time to do the Saturday items on the list left by my wife.

I then had to unpack my bike from the car and get it built ready for the morning.

Weather to Ride - It certainly was Glorious!

2008-02-11T11:12:00.000-08:00

The weekend weather was glorious, you almost felt summer was early with 13 degrees C (aprox 55 degrees F) and very sunny and dry, just a little crisp first thing as the frost lifted. Big G and I took full advantage getting 52 miles Saturday and 46 Sunday with over 1000 metres of climbing each day.

Saturday at 9:00 as usual (last three Saturday mornings) I was at the local bike shop (Corridori Banstead) to pick up my bike. Last week it had an Shimano 105 front mech that would only cover two of the three chainwheels. This week with no fuss or extra expense Corridori has swapped it for an Ultegra front mech. It worked beautifully and on Sunday my tired legs certainly appreciated the extra gearing.

At 10:40 AM Big G (on his Look 595) and I (on my Roubaix) set off from his place in East Ewell. A good 52 miles in the sunshine taking in the usual hills but as we went off Leith Hill, instead of going towards either Shere or Coldharbour, we went down Mole Street following the route of the SWRC 100Km course towards Ellens Green. At a nice relaxed pace we chatted until we met the junction of the A281 and A29. From there we rode back up the A29, up Leith, through Coldharbour, Dorking, through Dorking, over Ranmore and up Mont Box.

For a change I opted for the National Trust vegetable pastie with my coffee (choice of hot or cold (the pastie not the coffee!), I opted for hot with brown sauce). I can recommend the veggie pasties and will certainly be enjoying more of them (perhaps not a good idea when my Doctor told me this week that my Cholesterol level is 7.1 - yikes). The ride from the top of Mont Box home is always the best bit of the ride as it is more downhill than up and you can get quite a pace going (except up blasted Banstead Hill).

Saturday PM I spent up a ladder swearing and cutting my hands and arms to shreds trimming the Leylandi at the end of our garden.

Also Saturday PM, Big G went to collect his new top of the range Bianchi before having a late afternoon nap (oh the joys of the single man). It is a lovely looking machine. Bianchi has perfected the Italian styling, good looks and romance. Whilst it is not quite up to the absolute efficiency of a race trimmed Look 595, you buy the Bianch for the looks and at less than half the price the performance is still good. Big G thought it was heavy when he picked it up, but then a Helium balloon is heavy compared to his Look 595.

Gig G doesn't want to ruin the Look 595 riding through the winter so opted for the Bianchi for a winter bike. He has had it fitted with a comp and a better saddle and tyres. Corridori did him a deal and gave him a generous discount (seeing as we seem to be regulars in the store). Corridori fitted it so that the geometry is as near that on his 595 as possible.

Sunday morning I telephoned Big G at 8:30 to get him out of bed. He started the day complaining of the stiffness in his muscles from Saturdays ride. At 9:30 we started out from his house (Big G on the new Bianchi) and I promised him a slow easy ride (he believed me, 46 miles and 1100 metres of climb later he was able go home for his Mums roast and an afternoon nap!). I was a bit stiff myself, but you know the form - show no weakness to get the psycological upper hand.

We went over the hills one by one, and where as on Saturday Big G was up front, on Sunday he was tailing behind (I maintained just enough to stay in front so he didn't see the pain on my face). At the beginning I agreed we would think about Leith when we got there and Ranmore was definitely out, however, he gamely knocked each hill off with his new Comp as I reintroduced each hill to the route.

At the top of Mont Box my Wife and son together with her friend and her dog Zippy met us. They had parked at the bottom at Rikers and had walked up the hill. Fortunately they were near the front of the very slow moving tea queue when we arrived saving us from having to wait long for our refreshment.

After the ride home my wife, son and I went ten pin bowling. I won the first game and I let her win the second (OK, I admit it, I was bowling like a dozy and was beaten fair and square). A pleasant afternoon followed by a nice roast chicken dinner.

What of the others? M was on parenting duty all weekend. S went out with Team MK and managed to finish the 47 mile ride. My brother was parenting Saturday but got in 70 miles with the club Sunday. Recently he has been using his old Raleigh 531 but Sunday he saw the sunshine and got out the Roubaix, and he says that he appreciated the difference it makes.

Two weeks to go to the SWRC 100, time to get in those last hard miles this coming weekend before tapering for the race weekend.

PS: I write this for my own fufilment but if you think it drones on please let me know.

Evidence of an undisplaced fracture

2008-02-05T10:40:00.000-08:00

Because of the continued discomfort in my hip over the festive season I wanted to get my hip looked at further so at the start of the New Year I went to my GP and got him to refer me to a consultant under my private healthcare scheme. I saw him earlier in January and he had new xrays done of my hip. They did not show anything at the time and he then referred me for an MRI scan.

I had the MRI scan last week and went back today for the results.

The scan shows evidence of an undisplaced fracture of the right hip. Once you know where it is and go back to the xray then you can see evidence of the bone growing over the fracture. No wonder it hurt so much for so long.

His opinion was that it should continue to heal but best I avoid sports such as running. Cycling, rowing and swimming are OK. He also said it was probably best not to fall off the bike again.

He sees no reason that it should give me problems in the future.

As for the school ski trip in March, he thinks that by then it should have healed further and be fine.

Discharged (but come back if problems occur).

Oh Dear - Did I overdo it?

2008-02-04T12:44:00.000-08:00

After doing 39 miles Saturday with Big G in the Surrey Hills, Sunday I was on my own. Big G was rowing, M was skiing and Turbo P was on his way hime from his Ski holiday, see his comments below. I wasn't feeling very sprightly, but The Wife gave me the line "haven't you got some cycling you could be getting on with" and threw me out of the house at 9:30 AM.

As I didn't have my Specialized Roubaix (back at the shop having the front mech changed) I was on my old Peugeot (Steel Reynolds 501 with shifter levers on the downbar).

I struggled against the wind down the A217 and headed via Tadworth to Mont Box. It was cold and windy so I didn't stop. It was my intention to do a Col Ranmore and return home but some lunacy got the better of me and I headed along the ridge, down the 18% and up through Abinger to the top of Leith Hill. From there I did the usual circuit round Coldharbour down into Dorking.

By Dorking I was struggling and seriously considered leaving out Ranmore but lunacy got the better of me again and I struggled up to the top of the ridge.

Back down the other side up Mont Box, straight past the National Trust tea shop without stopping and home.

Fifty miles and four hours after leaving home and without refueling at the top of Mont Box (I only had 3/4 bottle of SIS and no gels) I struggled in the front door, whacked out! Where has my fitness gone????

The afternoon was a struggle not helped by a family trip to IKEA, followed by a flat pack assembly session (miracle of miracles, all the bits were present and the bookcase and swivel chair went together exactly as described in the plans!).

Early to bed last night and sore and headachey this morning. No training today I think.

News from S, he was out with Team MK on Saturday for the first time and came off on ice hurting his wrist and tearing up a tyre. To compound this, after gettting the bike moving again he suffered a valve failure. He is probably sore this morning as well.

Response from S in Milton Keynes to my posting:

"Absolutely right - I went to the gym yesterday [Sunday] to see how bad my injuries were, and came through that OK. On Saturday it was my ego that suffered the most! Out for the first time with a new bunch of folks and I succeeded in doing only about 12 miles before I had to bail out. Just makes me all the more determined to be back again next Saturday and complete a ride with them; unless I've been barred for taking a couple of them out when I went down..."

Also a response from Tubo P of the Guilford Peloton

"Yes, I feel that I can contribute to this tale of woe as I just got back from skiing in Zermatt. The nightmarish sun and perfect snow was just terrible and the grind of having to come back to the chalet for freshly baked cake at 4.30pm EVERY DAY was truly hellish. Shortbread fresh from the oven was also pure torture. What I found was even MORE of a hardship was the constant champagne and canapes served at 7.30pm sharp followed by a five course meal. The Wife and I really put ourselves through it.

Sometimes, I feel that people just don't understand the squalid conditions that we experience on ski holidays ;0 )

So back to the cycling grindstone from this weekend onwards! Yipee! BTW, I did a VO2 max test thing a couple of weeks ago and results were v interesting. I shall be working on this and will hopefully be spearheading the peloton as we get closer to the Etape!!!"

A magical mystery tour, a century and a brownie point deficit

2008-01-20T11:31:00.000-08:00

Despite poor weather in the rest of the UK the surrey hills were dry and unseasonably warm this weekend. Temperatures reached 13 degrees (high fifties Fahrenheit). We did over 100 miles and over 2000 metres of climbing over the two days and I am now in serious deficit on my Brownie point account.

Big G and I set out on Saturday to reckie some of the SWRC 100 Km course. It was a bit of a mystery tour but fortunately we took a map as Big G gets anxious because my memory of routes and laissez-faire attitude on directions it means we are not always sure whether we are on the right road or where the road leads, and we did have to consult the map a good number of times.

We went out through Leatherhead, Polesden Lacy, Ranmore Common, Leith Hill and Forest Green south as far as Ellens Green before returning through Cranleigh towards Guilford.

At Shere we stopped at the Lucky Duck for a refuelling stop and enjoyed a baked potato and coffee before returning home.

A good 55 miles and over 1000 metres of climbing, however, unfortunately I was out beyond my curfew (we got back at 3 PM, about 1 PM was my limit!). Trouble!!

Sunday S joined us from MK for his first venture into the Surrey Hills, and 48 miles and 1000 plus metres of climbing later he had put us to shame on his Specialized Allez. Our performance was somewhat affected by the previous days mileage (that’s our excuse).

We started same as Saturday but after Leith Hill we turned East and came back through Coldharbour and Dorking, back up Ranmore and on to Mont Box. I crawled up Mont Box at 5 mph rather than the usual 10-11 mph and watched S dash away from me as if it was his first climb of the day. I was truly grateful of the tea, bread and butter pudding and a SIS gel at the National Trust teashop.

On our way back down Ranmore we spotted two others from the Guilford Peloton and exchanged greetings (Of course it would be easier to spot each other once those shirts turn up).

Big G has equalled his longest ever ride and has by far exceeded his longest weekend mileage, S has proved to himself that he can ride with the best of them and will be contacting his local club in MK to ride with them going forward, and I proved the leg is getting better but that I need more fitness before I do any more racing.

My brother C has spent the weekend climbing the Peyresourde on his new iMagic as the weather in St Albans has not been as unseasonably dry as Surrey, and my usual partner in crime M was confined to barracks parenting due to the work commitments of his partner (though he did get 42 miles in on Saturday afternoon).

Back on the Bike

2008-01-15T12:40:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I ventured out with my mate Big G for a gentle Box Hill. It was a nice morning but when I left home at 9:00 am there was still ice on the cars, but the sun was out.

I had problems getting on the bike, I was very nervous clipping in to the pedals and I was daunted by the thought of the hills. I went by Big G's house and we went out through Epsom to Box Hill. I think we caught every set of lights at red and now I remember why of late we have been going to Box Hill via Cobham or Tadworth recently rather than Epsom. I panicked at a couple of sets of lights and nearly fell off.

Everytime I panicked I tensed and this pulled on my Hip injury but all in all we took it gently and got to Box Hill without incident. As the injury prevents me from standing up to climb the hill I started gently and as we got to the second switchback Big G had opened up a 20 metre gap on me. I felt that I should put a bit more effort in and increased my cadence to catch him. I seemed to go right past, but as Big G can sometimes be a bit canny I thought nothing of it. As we came to the last corner I could hear him coming up on me so I sped up - and left him. He was having a bad day because he usually beats me. More gym training and less cakes for him I think.

The tea and cakes were as good as I remember from before Christmas and we had a good chinwag. We also met another Dynamo and his mate. He had also done the Etap for the first time last year and we chatted for a while.

We went back slowly chatting whilst we rode through Tadworth and on via Epsom race course to Banstead.

We stopped at the bike shop, Corridori (Drift Bridge), their new shop, as I had to drop my bike off to be fitted with a triple. We spent a very pleasant hour and a half chatting to Brian and Guy who own/work there and they were explaining all the equiptment in stock and telling us about the new clothing coming in March.

Corridori stock Bianchi's and Specialized and Big G is very tempted to buy a Bianchi as a winter bike so that his fully loaded Look 595 does not get wrecked by the February/March foul weather. Lets see if that Investment Bank bonus stretches that far this year.

Overall the leg is getting better, albeit slowly, so I should be OK for the SWRC ride on Feb 24th but there is still a question about skiing in march.

Hope to get out again this weekend, weather permitting, and Big G and I might be joined by my mate S who has just taken up cycling and has set his sight on completing the dragon this year. There are very few hills in Milton Keynes where he lives so he is coming to try the Surrey Hills experience.

Happy New Year

2008-01-08T12:50:00.000-08:00

I have, as have most people, been rather busy over the Christmas period - and unfortunately not cycling.

I trust Santa was good to you all and brought you flashy new cycling gear - if not, I am sure Wiggle will have something on sale you could buy to console yourself with. Myself, I got a new dhb rainjacket and my brother got a new imagic fluid trainer.

I am still suffering from the crash which was in November. This was not helped by someone running up the back of my car in mid December which not only put the car out of action (still not back from the repairers yet) but also twinged my back for which I have had physio.

Currently I am still limping from the bike crash and my physio thinks that I may have torn the ligament and muscle away from where they are attached to the pelvis/hip. He reckons it could be up to 9 month to heal. I have decided that I would rather be safe than sorry so I am off to the quacks to get referred to a specialist. Need to get this fixed before we are due to go skiing with the school in March.

The injury means that I cannot get on or off the bike or when on the bike I cannot stand on the pedals to go uphill. Once I get on the bike then I can pedal comfortably. Over the last fortnight I have had 6 sessions of up to an hour on the gym bike (but it does not seem to be shifting the tummy I have developed or the 8 kilos I have put on since the etap in July)

To give myself some goals and on the assumption that I will be able to cycle this year I have entered some races. The first is the SWRC 100k on Feb 24th, the next is the Hampshire Hilly Hundred (100 miles which I completed in 5 hours 50 mins in 2007) in May, followed by the big one - the Dragon Ride in June.

The Dragon Ride is 180 Kilometres in Wales (bound to be raining) with 3000 metres of climb. A number of others (including the Guilford Pelaton) have also entered and we have all booked into the luxurious Premier Inn at the Junction 35 Services on the M4 the night before.

Happy cycling

Wednesday December 12th 2007 The Road to Recovery

2007-12-12T12:37:00.000-08:00

Saturday I went to the physio. Chris has magic in his hands. After a session of massage and untrasound he gave me a series of exercises to do, assured me that there was only soft tissue damage and told me to start training again.

Sunday I was a bit sore but whilst the wife and son were at church followed by Sainsburys, and it was pouring with rain outside, I managed an hour and a half on my ancient (circa 1990) and rusty turbo trainer in the kitchen. I kept the heart rate down at 130 and the cadence in the low 80s.

No ill effects, and despite being sore, I am crutch free this week (must remember to return those crutches to Kingston Hospital ASAP).

Unfortunately, with it being in the run up to Christmas I am busy at lunch times meeting and catching up with friends I neglected during the year. This means no gym this week. Those pounds are going to pile on!

Wednesday December 5th 2007 Still on Crutches

2007-12-05T13:17:00.001-08:00

I am still limping around. I am down to just one crutch but still in lots of pain. Today I thought that a lunchtime visit to the gym, a light session on the bike and a trip to the steam room might help - NO. The 20 minutes cycling went well, a very light setting and low heart rate. Bit bruised round the top of the hip but no discomfort. The steam room was hot and relaxed my neck and shoulders which were stiff. This afternoon and evening - stiff and sore!!!!

I have booked a session at the physio for 8:30 AM Saturday. Lets see if Chris' magic hands can help.

I was never going to be able to get out last weekend, even before I had the accident. The fact that there was so much rain cheered me up a bit, at least I wasn't getting wet and putting myself at risk of sliding off and hurting myself.

The Wife and I had a busy weekend planned, mostly taken up organising the raffle for the school Christmas Fare. The Wife had been busy organising and worrying about the event for the past two weekes trying to chivi up the other parents and sending out letters asking local busineses to donate prizes. As it happened the prizes came good and we spent Friday night wrapping the prizes and typing up prize lists.

Saturday The Wife was at the school all day organising the display of the prizes and selling tickets with her organised buch of parents. I was roped in as well. It went well and the raffle raised a record amount, which is in some ways like shooting yourself in the foot. Now we have been threatened with organising the raffle for the school ball in January. Sunday was spent sorting out the unclaimed prizes and arranging to get them to the winners.

Crash - Ooops

2007-11-30T11:36:00.000-08:00

Sunday was a disaster. My mate and I headed for Polesden Lacey where I encountered trouble. I will let him describe it to you in the words he used to circulate the news t the Guilford Pellaton.

"Hope everyone got out at the w/e. I only made it out on Sunday but that was enough drama for me. I was out with our spiritual leader (el Duncano) and we were in the vicinity of Polesden Lacey (nr Ranmore). As we crested the hill I uttered the immortal words "be careful on the descent it might be a bit greasy". Anyway, on a fast right hand bend on a 20% section Duncan's bike slipped from under him and he gave the ground an almighty thump, followed by a forward roll and triple salchow (5.7, 5.8, 5.7, 5.9).

No damage to the bike but our man was not in good shape. A tarmac tattoo on his upper thigh and a very sore and stiff hip and leg. He eventually soldiered on to the top of Mount Box (note, no trains on Sunday from Box Hill station) to await collection from his very own Florence Nightingale. An afternoon in casualty and a few x rays later he was sore but not broken and on the bus home.

Not sure if he's made it back into work yet on his crutches but hopefully we'll hear soon and he can give you all the full version of career injury no. 357."

Needless to say there were a few responses to this, concerned but humerous, but here is what I posted to the respondents on Tuesday.

"Those points seem a quite generous considering the lack of rehearsal. Maybe the judges were swayed by my good looks and the amount of dramatics in the rolling around in the mud in agony straight after the accident.

I am at home. I was recovering well yesterday but today I seemed to have relapsed today. I tried to not take the drugs this morning but by lunchtime I could stand it no longer and took the drugs and went to bed for 90 mins. Just been lying on the settee since getting off my bed and catching up on the last Grand Prix that I never got time to watch. Again Hamilton was beaten by Raikenen.

I have to be in the city tomorrow lunchtime for a meeting then I think I will come home again.

The tarmac tattoos on my hip and forearm are healing well, have stopped pussing and dried up. The shoulder is sore but no physical sign of bruising, but the left leg is so stiff and sore.

The bike is still dismantled in the back of the car as I am not fit enough to get it out. My watch took a lot of the friction off the forearm and will never be the same. At least it was a Sekonda unlike those Rolex and Omega that you Investment Bankers wear.

The Wife is not happy either. Lost any brownie points I might have had banked (probably was in overdraft anyway)."

Saturday Nov 23rd 2007 Around the Park with the Dynamos

2007-11-30T11:12:00.000-08:00

I decided that today I would train around Richmond Park with the Dynamos. My mate was going to join me at the meeting point. He didn't show up by the time for the off so I went without him. I later got a text saying that for once his alarm, his 3 year old had slept in and he hadn't woken until to late.

Last time I did this I struggled after two laps so this time I was looking to go in one of the slowest groups. The first two groups went off (faster riders) but then everyone started to be reluctant to go forward. Group three eventually formed but no one wanted to go for group four waiting for groups five and six. I moved forward reluctantly and eventually we formed a group of ten and set off.

I was still there at the end of the second lap. We lost a few and gained one from ahead (and I think maybe one or two from behind). As lap three went on I struggled on the hills and as we started lap four I was dropped. Well, at least only one lap on my own and I wasn't caught by the next group. When I got to the cafe I was welcomed by my group and enjoyed a warm coffee.

Quality 41 miles by the time I got home.

November 17th Weekend

2007-11-19T12:28:00.000-08:00

Did you all buy Cycling Weekly this week and read the article about theEtap 2008 course? Some bloke rode it and I don't think it is as easy as some people are making out.

I don't know how you all got on over the weekend but I managed 41 miles on Saturday and 36 on Sunday even though The Wife had last week told me not to make any plans. It was not easy though, (the cycling that is rather than getting permission from the wife, but believe me getting permission wasn't that easy either, and despite getting out most weekends at present and visiting the gym occasionally (very occasionally, but I did manage two sessions in the gym last week) my fitness is at an all time low.

Saturday I was out with the London Dynamos in Richmond Park. I managed 3.5 lapsbefore being dropped, and only lasted that long because we had to slowdown after 2 laps because we had caught the group in front. If we hadn't had to slow down I would have been dropped at the end of that second lap. I managed to get home at 11:20, only 20 mins after curfew.

Sunday I was only given the all clear at 8:00 AM by The Wife so I shot out the door before she could change her mind. I stretched the 11:00 AM curfew deadline to 12:00 PM and managed a slice of coffee and walnut cake, a Box Hill and Ranmore both sides (800 metres of elevation according to my Polar CS600).

I have faced up to the fact that for practical reasons he Etap is not on for me next year, so I won't be joining the Guilford Pelaton at the gitte, but I am dammed if I let them do the training without my input. Besides, if I don't do the training all this cake I have got used to eating is going to cause me to balloon, or if I give up the cake the National Trust Tea Shop on Box Hill will go bust, and we wouldn't want that would we?

24 Hours to the 2008 Etap Route Announcement

2007-10-25T13:15:00.001-07:00

The clock is ticking, just 24 hours to go before the announcement!!!!!!!!

Have you got those butterflies in your tummy? Have you Googled the latest rumours? Have you thought about all the equiptment and which bike you will need to buy to get the best result? Have you started to draw up your training schedule? Have you booked your training camps and reckies? Have you practised filling out the entry form (black or Blue pen, block capitals please)? What about that doctors note - how much is he going to need to be bribed this year - you are a year older than last time?

Most important of all - have you got permission from the wife or significant other (mum, life partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, cat/dog or blow up doll)? How did you get it, honest question "Darling, Please can I do the 2008 Etap" or through subdefuge "Shall we holiday in France in July 2008"

24 HOURS TO GO

Me, I am just a bystander but even I am getting excited

Oct 2nd 2007 South Downs Challenge Results Announced - and Success

2007-10-15T11:56:00.000-07:00

The time has come, the results have been calculated and checked - and wehave a winner.There were 70 riders who completed the 50 mile course and of those 70,the fastest rider on the South Downs Challenge 50 mile route for 2007is:

DRUM ROLL, TRUMPET FANFARE

Dynamo Duncan of the London Dynamos with a time of 2 hours 42 minutes

Clapping, champagne, good looking women to kiss the winner, groupies begging to have his children

All in all a pleasing resultI admit that the average speed of the riders on the 80 miles challenge was slightly faster completing that in 4 hours, but hey, you have to be in it to win it.

Unfortunately no prize or international recognition - but a warm glow inside.

Sept 24th 2007 South Downs Challenge

2007-10-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

I have been booked on the Monday morning British Airways 9:20 AM LGW - EDI flight for three weeks. The first week I missed the flight. Arrived in time to see it taxiing away from the stand. Last week I only just caught it as it was pandemonium on the roads and at Gatwick going through security. Today, despite leaving at the same time as previous weeks and getting lost around Redhill I managed to get through check in and security in time to get half an hour in the business lounge!

I was well prepared for the South Downs Challenge Sunday morning. I was at an eighteenth birthday party Saturday night in Basingstoke and did not get to bed until after midnight. I then had to get up at 5:30 AM to drive down to Waterlooville to enter and start.

The nice thing about the event was that tea, coffee and biscuits were free before the event and after the event there was hot minestrone soup, cheese and ham rolls, hot cross buns and cereal bars as well as tea coffee and biscuits, all for nowt, gratis, free! They even arranged nice weather.

There were two loops, the 50 miler and the 80 miler. As the wife wanted me back by lunchtime and I was uncertain of my fitness I sensibly opted for the 50 miler. Did well, I was home by 13:30 PM in time to watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on the Rald Dahl Weekend on ITV3 with my young son.

My time was 2 hours 42 minutes for 50 miles (including time stopped at feed station and 750 metres of climb) which beats the last years winning time but I have not seen the full results yet. I should be in the top 10 I hope. I was disappointed to miss Gold standard by 4 minutes but at least I was well within Silver. What will be to my advantage is that for once it was not me that got lost but a bunch of fast guys who ended up doing an extra 4 miles. Their hard luck in my view, that is usually me. Anyway will be interesting to see full results when they are published.

I was talking to two guys at the start line who were experienced cyclists with a few trips to the Alps and Pyrennees under their belt including most of the 2007 Etap (although they had never done an Etap). I did the first 12 miles with them at some speed before they peeled off to do the 80 mile route, but, by that stage we had already picked off a lot of guys who had started before us. From there to 38 miles I did on my own. No one passed me. I caught one guy who managed to pull away on the hills (caught him again in last 10 miles and took him), another who had a puncture and was fixing it by the side of the road and a third who was struggling. Otherwise I was lonely and anxious that I had missed a turn off.

The course was somewhat hilly with two "out of category" climbs (so my legs told me, but I didn't get off). With 12 miles to go I was struggling. Two guys caught me. They tried to blow me away but I did my limpet act and tagged on. Once they could not get rid of me we worked together, with me having to spend time at the front (I reckoned that I was going to suffer anyway, so I might as well suffer with others and get it over with quicker).

We rode at quite a pace and picked off another 4 or five guys. They set out the tactics with us changing the man in front rapidly as we passed the other riders so they could not latch on (their tactic not mine).

With two miles to go I ended up at the front, and no one seemed to want to take over from me. I knew what was coming and at the one mile marker they shot off, I tried to go with them but I was not quick enough, anyway I knew they would only open up less than a minute on me and as they started before me (they got lost as well) they would not beat my time, so I was happy to let them go.

I was the 5th man across the line (the 80 milers had not started to arrive and everyone else was behind me). My right thigh had been trying to cramp for the last 8 miles and I was shattered. I don't think I could have done the 80 mile route. My average speed despite the hills was just under 19mph. Well pleased, wicked.

I was absolutely shattered after the ride and my son and I and I lounged on the settee in the afternoon watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on ITV3.

Had to go to bed early. This morning it is not my legs that are sore but my neck and head.

That is my 2008 Etap training done, roll on the race.

Sept 17th 2007 Tour of the New Forest

2007-10-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

Greetings from The Capital – Edinburgh, up here on business. I see the Guilford Pelaton had a successful ride in Kent, well done.

Unfortunately Brentford got thumped by the MK Don(key)s on Saturday in the League 2 head to head. We were at Griffin Park to see the shambles. It was a disgrace.

The weather was glorious in Dorset for the Tour of the New Forest. As predicted it was an undulating 28 miles through the scenic countryside dragging a whingeing 7 year old on a tag-a-long and trying to ignore the wife's asthmatic yelling "slow down, it is not the bl**dy Tour de France" as she trailed behind on her touring cycle.

We did the 28 miles in just over 3 hours including the stop after 10 miles for coffee (and to inspect a 1935 Sunbeam which was being ridden by a member of the vintage Cycle Club) and the stop after 20 miles for ice cream (and to let the wife catch up and catch her breathe).
My son threw a wobbly on the start as he wanted to do the ride on his own bike as "only babies ride tag-a-longs". Anyway, after that was dealt with and trouble with the wife's back wheel which led to two false starts we got on our way.

I only had to walk up one Col which came up after 6 miles (obviously did usual trick and went out too fast running out of glycogen). The rest we managed without too much problem. At one stage we were riding with three guys on aluminium racing bikes with my son shouting to them that we were faster than them as we had caught them. After about 3 miles I let them go and waited for his mother to catch us up. When we restarted he wanted to ride flat out again to catch them but I thought better as we had been stationary for a good five minutes. We also overtook a load of racing cyclist struggling going up a Col just after the long route rejoined the medium route we were doing. One of them was on a Look bike! Once we hit the flat they came back past us with a hearty "good on ya" as they disappeared.

Generally we were overtaking people all the way and my passenger/stoker was pedalling. We opened up 15 minutes on his mother in the last 5 miles.

When we stopped at 20 miles I got talking to another bloke who was towing his daughter on a tag-a-long that he had hired. He told me he was looking to buy one. After a conversation we left them at the stop but shouted back that if he made me an offer at the finish line I would be willing to sell. At the finish (he took an hour longer than us from that stop to the finish) he came up with £40 and a deal was done. He took the tag-a-long home with him (without my son as the wife would not let me throw him in as part of the deal). My son will have to ride his own bike next time time as we no longer have a tag-a-long.

I also enjoyed a sausage bun with loads of ketchup and mustard at the finish to replenish the fuel supplies - and very nice it was. On the way home in the car the wife slept, and once we got home my son for once asked to go to bed early.

So, is anyone up for the South Downs Challenge this weekend. I have official permission to do it.

Sept 14th 2007 Preparation for the Tour of Kent and the Tour of the New Forest

2007-10-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

Any body out there?

No doubt you Guilford Peloton members will have at this point have finished your preparation on the road for the Tour of Kent with just a gentle ride today and tomorrow to keep the legs moving. You will have polished and oiled the bike, torque'd all the bolts and washed and ironed your chosen kit ready to lay it out Saturday night ready for Sunday. Your bodies are no doubt honed and ready to peak on Sunday. Just don't forget your shoes, gloves and helmets on Sunday.

I will be reading the press on Monday expecting headlines along the lines of "New cycling team emerges to take to prize in Tour of Kent"

Myself, I have done 90 miles (ridden to work three times, however, spoiled it this morning with big fry up in the canteen) in the last 8 days with an extra half hour in the gym to top it up in preparation for the Tour of the New Forest on Sunday. An undulating 28 miles through the scenic countryside dragging a whingeing 7 year old on a tag-a-long and trying to ignore the wife's asthmatic yelling "slow down, it is not the bl**dy Tour de France" as she trails behind on her touring cycle.

One spanner in the works is that the bike I will be using Sunday (a hybrid) has a buckled front wheel where, whilst on holiday in France in August, I drove into a height restriction in a car park entrance whilst the bike was on the roof of the car. Not only did it buckle the wheel but I ruined my roof bars, my cycle carriers and dented the roof of the car. Fortunately there was also a hired bike on the roof and the seat post of that bike took the brunt of the damage away from my bike and my wife's touring bike. As I went through the entrance there was a massive bang followed by three bikes falling off the back of my car. Good job the cycle carries were flimsy and I had not tightened them up much as it was only a short journey.

News from my mate Big G who has bought himself a Look 595 (jealous me? no way, Green with envy maybe, but I will be rewarding myself with a new Look cycle in March if I have managed to convince the wife that I can do the Etap in 2008). He is really enjoying riding it and is using his holiday this week and next training in the Surrey hills getting ready to join us on our Etap quest 2008. A prospective new member for the Guilford Pelaton (what is the status of those shirts at the moment?).

Any body up for the South Downs Challenge next Sunday? http://www.southdowns-challenge.co.uk/ I quite fancy the 50 mile route. Let me know.

New York August 6th 2007

2007-10-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

Weekend report:

Well, there was no cycling this weekend but lots of visits to bike shops and diners -but more about that later.

I checked my weight this morning - total gain now 4.5 lbs in one week but at least the rate of climb seems to be slowing. Only 5 more days to go.

Went to the gym Friday night and did 30 minutes running and weights. Went again Saturday morning and did an hour on the bike cadence 90average heart rate 148. I nearly had a seizure!!! My fitness has gonedown severely since the Etap. I suffered badly.

I made up for the exercise by walking the 40 blocks to the bike shop stopping on the way to refuel on steak and eggs, toast and coffee. A good traditional American breakfast.

The bike shop was fantastic (Bicycle Renaisance 81st and Columbus). They run their own team using Pinarello frames and just started stocking Look frames in the last couple of months. They had the Look 595 frame in bothblack and white (loads of other Look frames as well). The 595 is very impressive. The seatpost is part of the frame. They also had the Pinnarello Paris Carbon (used by one of the teams in the Tour) and theOrbea used by Euskatel (?). They knew what they were talking about and I went round the back to the very impressive workshops where they werebuilding one of the Look 595s into a bike for delivery to a customer.

Went to a couple of other bike shops including a Bianchi dealer, but they were not as impressive in their presentation. More regular bikeshops rather than the professional shop I first went to.

Then went to the Apple shop and bought a selection of IPods (a shuffle,a nano and an 30 gb video model) and the Harley Davidson shop for some souvenir T shirts for my son and nephew (they like to havethe same shirts).

On Saturday night myself and a colleague went to the new Transformers movie. I had very low expectations but it was really good. I think it is aimed at teenagers (like myself) and was certainly not for kids as it had adult humour and content. Worth going to see if you are at a loose end.

Sunday got up late, decided not to do the NY Half marathon. Didn't wantto show up the Etheopian fella Haille Gabrisomething who won in 59minutes or the other 10,000 runners. Besides, my knee is sore after running Friday night. Went to an American diner for pancakes, eggs and bacon, then Macy's for the wife's cosmetics. Wandered down to Union Square (20th Street) then back to the hotel. Day gone.

The Americans have not heard of F1 so I did not get the result until this morning at work (no coverage in the papers either.

So no frame purchase, but the Look was a bargain, Pinarello was lovely and I wouldn't have minded the Orbea.

Etap 2007

2007-10-03T13:06:00.000-07:00

~~~~~~~~ Challenge Completed ~~~~~~~~~

It was hell out there, the heat, the 4500 metres of climb up the mountains, the altitude, the distance.My result was position 3206 out of 4357 finishers. Consider this in the context that 7000 were entered and many were swept up for not being able to stay ahead of the broom wagon. In my class (40 to 50 years) I was 1213th out of 1644 that finished.

I managed the 120 miles, 5 mountains in 43 degrees of heat (the tarmac was melting and tyres were sticking to it) in 10 hours 43 minutes. Myself, my brother (10 hours 4 seconds) and my mate (10 hours 47 minutes) all finished, but there were many who didn't and got a lift to the finish in the broom wagons.

I went very well for the first 115 kilometres (first three mountains). I was awesome on the downhills and across the flat between the first two climbs but began to suffer at the top of the third where my brother (who over the winter has been consistently fitter and stronger on the bike than me) caught me. At that point I we were two and a half hours ahead of the broom wagon (the broom wagon travels at a consistent 17 Kph over the course, I finished one and a quarter hours ahead of the wagon at the finish).

My brother and I carried on together down the third mountain but he pulled away climbing the fourth. Over a course like this you consume between 6000 and 8000 calories so you need to be taking on food and drink. I obviously messed up on this as I bonked going up the fourth mountain (the body ran out of energy stores and shuts down). I even fell off when I touched wheels with another competitor but as my speed was so slow I simply bruised my knee as I hit the melting tarmac.

I can't remember much about the race for the last two mountains. I do remember pain and suffering and I walked a few Kilometers. The walking wore out the cleats on my shoes so only one shoe locked into the pedal over the last part of the fifth mountain which gave me a problem when I tried to ride uphill, but I had such a margin over the broom wagon that it didn't matter.

Even Greg Lemond, a recent Tour De France overall winner, only managed 8 hours 41 minutes. The winner, a 29-year-old Frenchman managed 6 hours 29 minutes!!! It will be interesting to see what time the Tour riders do the course in when they ride it next Monday.

I will post updated reports on this website (www.justgiving.com/duncansetap) over the next few days as I recover.

Pictures of me suffering during the race can be viewed (my race number is 4394) at:http://www.maindruphoto.com/product_info.php?products_id=2075560&cPath=1116_1117&language=en

As well as the money raised through the charity site I have other sponsorship and am hoping the HBOS Foundation will match the first £500 raised. Overall this should benefit the charity by over £2000.00. A fantastic figure I think, far exceeding my expectations.

My wifes' reaction "Now we can sell the bike and get on with our lives"

Overall, a once in a lifetime experience, but beware if this has prompted you to think about doing the Etap next year, your life will not be your own between the entry going in and the race.

Whitsun Bank Holiday

2007-10-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

I trust you all managed to get a few long rides in this weekend in preparation for the upcoming Etap.

On Friday my brother, my mate and I rode from London to the New Forest, some 95 miles through some beautiful countryside in glorious weather. We went tyhrough Surrey, West Sussex, Hampshire and into Dorset. Yes we did get lost a number of times and no it was not a hilly ride, more distance. Despite an average speed of 17 mph it still took all day and we stopped for leisurely teas and lunches. I can definitely recommend the route. Very little traffic and good roads.

Once we got to the New Forest we had to cycle across the top towards Ringwood. I was staying the Bank Holiday Weekend in a caravan site near Fordingbridge called "Sandy Balls" with my family. Thoroughly recommended the site. Anyway, I drove the other two to Salisbury to get a train home only for them to discover that the mainline was undergoing repairs over the Bank Holiday weekend and that they had to catch a slow train to Portsmouth for a long slow journey home (along the same route they had come down i.e. Liphook, Petersfield, Hazlemere etc). Very late night for them getting home after 10 PM.

That was the only real ride I did over the weekend, however, I did manage scenic rides of 20 miles each with the family Sat, Sun, & Mon in the New Forest. On Monday my 6 year old was tired and refused to pedal his tag-a-long so I had to tow him 20 miles whilst he did a running commentary of his observation from behind me. This is good training which I willingly accepted except for a couple of big hills where I used motivational speaking and coaching techniques to get his help and demanded he helped under threats of taking away his Easter eggs if he didn't.

The Wife was complaining that she was not in training for the Tour de France and that all weekend I was going to fast for her to enjoy the experience. She rides a Peugeot touring bike (racer style) and was pedalling furiously to keep up with me. She also complained that as soon as she got to the top of a hill where we (my son and I) were waiting for her we went dashing off without giving her time to recover. I don't know what she was complaining about, I was on a hybrid, carrying the rucksack, and towing a 6 year old (he is a strong pedaller when he wants to be and enjoyed Sat and Sun but Mon was a day to far for him).

All in all we had three punctures over the weekend so I spent Monday PM fixing punctures. My brother decided Sunday that after his Sunday morning club run he would test the strength of his carbon frames and forks. The car in front of him stopped sharply when someone opened a car door into the traffic and he was unable to stop the bike in time and took out the rear lights and went for a short flight landing heavily on the tarmac. The ambulance and Police were called and the guy was booked. My brother was fortunate to have not broken anything but is feeling bruised and grazed and his bike needs to go back to the shop for testing. My mate managed some shorter rides. His training has paid off and he has now overtaken me thanks to his new Look bike.

The wife will not let me do a reckie weekend in France but has booked us to spend a week in Sicily at Club Med over Whitsun Bank Holiday. Lets hope Etna dopes not decide to erupt whilst I am training on her slopes.