Pedal for Parkinsons 2014 - Stratford on Avon - June 8th

Update 14 June 2014 - Pictures Added 
Update March 2015 (belated) - a video was posted to Youtube and myself and my son are in it - here's a link: Pedal for Parkinsons Stratford 2015, and its embedded at the end of this page.

Pedal for Parkinsons in Stratford on Avon has been running for 4 years now - it first ran in 2011 and this is the 4th year its been run. I rode it in 2011 (and came first), rode it again in 2012 (and came first again). In 2012 my son also rode (the shorter route) and came first as well. I wrote about it here. So up to that point I had a good record on the ride (even though its not a race!).

I was going to ride again in 2013 but there were a number of personal issues and I left it quite late to enter only then to find the entry closed - I was quite disappointed! It's a different sort of event - its quite small - the first 2 years were probably 60 riders max, although I believe that Parkinsons are trying to be more professional and get more publicity out of all the events they run and hence there were more riders in 2013

However I was keen to ride again this year on June 8 and my son was also keen to join as well as he was back from university in time - although he was doing a triathlon event the day before so was not 100% sure how fit he'd feel.

We were all ready to go on the Sunday morning (its quite a civilised start time at 9am) and set off from home. Within less than 1/4 mile the car felt really strange so I stopped and found the nearside rear tyre flat and running on the rim. Disaster!!!. A quick U turn and race back home finished the tyre of completely and we had to take the bikes off the roof, get the bike rear wheels off and squeeze them into our second car - a Fiesta. As a result my wife was now unable to come so she was very disappointed. It also meant that instead of a nice leisurely drive to Stratford-upon-Avon we were now on quite a tight schedule to get to the racecourse to sign on by 8.30. We made it with about 10 minutes to spare.

We'd received an email in the week before stating that there were 197 riders signed up - obviously this was a mix of people doing the 20 mile route (probably the majority) and the 60 mile route. On arrival it was clear that since 2012 the even had grown- there was a marquee as a central focus, a number of portaloos around (rather than the 2 previously) and a marked out car park. We went over to the marquee to sign on and then got ready. There were quite a lot of people milling around. There were 2 colours for the numbers - red and blue, ours were blue so we assumed that the red were for the 20 mile people. It looked about 50-50 red and blue numbers. We were keen to be near the front for the start so we went over with about 15 minutes to go and were hence right on the front of the start. I chatted to a woman on a nice (men's) Trek 4.7 Domane bike (with the decoupled seat tube design) and sporting a new Garmin 1000 on the out front mount - this was bigger than I expected although the screen was not quite as big as I thought, but the map looked good so its obviously much higher resolution than my 800 unit. There was a general gathering of the other riders after us, then a small (token) safety briefing, some photos and then we were off just after 9.05am.

Inspecting My Bike!

Listening to the briefing

And we're off

 My son went off like a rocket. I had some clipping in problems and by the time I'd got clipped in he was 50-60m away and I had to push quite hard. I looked behind after the 1st mile or so and saw the nearest person about 2-300m behind - I was stunned as I thought people would be a lot closer. The high pace my son was setting had got my heart rate right up and I was getting concerned. By mile 3 there was no one in sight behind us!. We turned towards Long Marston and into a strong headwind that we had most of the way to Admington which is just on the northern edge of the Cotswolds. This saw the biggest climb of the ride up Camden/Nebsworth Hill. This is quite tough - steep at the bottom (~10%), plateau for a while in the middle and a kick up again at the end - about 1.5 miles and 400ft of climb at an average of 5%. This was where I blew the people with me in 2012 away. I managed an improved time up the hill this year compared to 2012 mainly as I was trying to live with my son who pulled out probably 30s by the top. There's then a quick flat section before a drop down to a level crossing. As in 2012 it was down again although for less time this year and a wait for only one train. I took the opportunity and ate half a cereal bar.

Somewhere around here (I think) we caught a lot of the 20 mile riders - they were all over the road (but having a nice ride) but we were riding over 50% faster than them and raced through. It felt like great fun but they weren't really expecting other cyclists to be passing them with such a speed differential.

There was then a rolling ride to Chipping Camden and then a short sharp climb to get to the top of Dovers Hill. Fortunately we were going down. My age shows as my son pulled out a big lead here that I was not prepared to match on the descent. At the bottom the route pulled onto the road down to Bidford on Avon with a dead tailwind. The slog south earlier was worth it as I was riding at over 25mph in a high gear without too much effort. I managed to catch my son as he was thwarted by the traffic lights at the single carriageway railway bridge. We didn't follow the road all the way to Bidford as we turned eastwards to Pebworth for the middle check point. I think we were earlier than they were expecting but with some water bottles topped up, another cereal bar for me and a banana for my son we were off again. Once past Bidford we worked our way towards Spernal which marked the general turn east and then south for the route. Again a favourable tailwind was helpful. The final checkpoint was at Great Alne Village hall and we definitely caught them out as not being expected. Another banana for my son and a couple of cereal bars for me and we were off again.

The final third through Wooton Wawen, Aston Cantlow etc was familiar territory and although there was a headwind again it seemed nothing like as strong as at the start - possibly the route was more sheltered. There was a not very picturesque run through NW Stratford past Anne Hathaway's cottage and then we were back at the start.

My son, who'd done probably more than 50% on the front (although we did share the load) pulled away in the last mile or so and there was no way I could live with him at that pace. He crossed the line about 20-30 seconds in front of me, a well deserved winner. However we were again too fast for the organisers who missed the pictures and video. So we got presented with the medal and some photos and then we rode back off site to ride back in so they could get some publicity material. Then they asked if we'd be ok to be on Video so we then did a sort of video interview for something they are planning to use to publicise the rides a little later in the year. So we did that. Then there was a small chat to camera and that was it - no one else had arrived back even by then - some 20 minutes or so since we had. We rode across the field and started to get ready to go home - it was not for a further 10 minutes or so before we saw anyone else return - so we were about 30 minutes faster than anyone else

The "Winners"

We had planned to try and go out and win - we thought it would be good publicity for Parkinsons for a father and son to do well and we had some "history" with me winning in 2011 & 2012 and my son winning the 20 mile route in 2012.

My son started a JustGiving page once we'd signed up - its here: http://www.justgiving.com/Jack-Bristow with a target of £100. With some support from the family he got to around £200-250 and I sent a begging email around work and managed to get another £250 or so, so on the day we were at £520 which was really well done. Part of the pitch at work was that 60 miles was not a challenge so we'd set ourselves the target of winning. This put on a level of pressure that I haven't felt before, hence why the puncture on the Sunday morning was especially unwanted.

Given that pressure, we tried pretty hard. The ride statistics were 57.8 miles in 3:14:36 - average speed 17.9 (was hoping for 18.0), height gain 2870ft (so about 50ft/mile). Given the gap to the other riders we were in the region of 30s/mile faster!

Here's a link to the ride on Strava: Pedal for Parkinsons Stratford 2014

So a great ride - really good weather (tan top up), great pace and a good achievement all round:

Here's the route and profile:

There were some photo's on Flicker and I have now posted some in the blog.

A video was also made and its on YouTube:

 

The Great Shakespeare Run 2012

Up until about 2 weeks ago I was finding cycling hard work. I think this was mostly because I had been putting a lot of miles in up to going away and then 2½ weeks away in hotels had just destroyed my fitness. However suddenly I seemed to regain both pace and stamina and it became easier again. The weather had also improved and during the week commencing 23 July I rode every day except the Wednesday and did just over 200 miles. The following week (commencing 30 July) I managed another commute and rode on the Saturday and Sunday and got a reasonable number of Strava achievements and did 127 miles with a 55 mile ride on the Sunday at an average just below 17mph so was feeling back to where I would hope and expect to be. 

This last week I planned to commute to work on the Tuesday and got up in time to do so but it it started to rain whilst I was in the shower and I am afraid I wimped out. I did ride Thursday and Friday though and squeezed in an extended commute home to get some more miles in. Success.

During the week I had idly looked at what Sportives were around and saw the The Great Shakespeare Ride advertised. A colleague did this last year and recommended it, so I thought I might ride it. There was a 100mile and 100km ride available and although I felt better I still was not sure that if I rode the 100mile route I'd enjoy it. The route looked fairly rolling (for Warwickshire) and I did not want to get to 60-70 miles and then struggle for another 2 hours just to get back, so I decided that if I rode it I'd only do the 100km route. Also as it was a 9am start 100miles would not have seen me back at the start until 3.30pm or so and that was the whole day blown time wise. Over the 100km distance I was hoping for a ride time of between 3:30 (very optimistic) and 4:00 (very disappointed) and this was my nominal target.

I also decided that I'd leave it until as late as possible and look at the weather which if was OK meant I'd do an EOD. By the Saturday I had decided to ride so sorted myself out the night before, not that that took long. A quick trip down the M40, 1 wrong turn and I got to the start location. It was based in a Hotel near Stratford Upon Avon with overflow parking about 1.5 miles down the road. I parked up at the overflow (sad to see a load of losers parking on the side of the road to avoid the ride - if you can't cycle 1.5 miles then what are you doing entering a sportive??) and rode to the start, paid my fee and rolled round to the start line. A few minutes later we were off so beautifully timed.

It was a mass start event (the first I have done) and was off at 9am almost on the dot. With so many riders together it was quite slow for the first 5-6 miles when it started to open up - there was a gentle "climb" that did make a bit of a split this was "Frizz Hill" on Strava, approaching Compton Verney to cross the Fosse Way. There were plenty of groups and it was easy after this to get on the back of a group to match the speed I wanted to do. There were a few hills in the first 20 miles and this split the "peleton" up quite a bit further. The first "big" climb was Tysoe Hill/Sugarswell Ln Climb - 100m or of 14% in the middle that certainly split the riders.

At about 20 miles the routes split - for once it seemed as if the bulk of the riders were doing the 100mile route - normally it seems to the the other way round.

Because of this the number of groups dropped and my pace slowed a bit. I pulled out a 7th place on the "A429 to B4479" segment (good result).

At about 30miles a small group of about 5-6 people formed and the pace rose again until we got to a monster hill at about 40 miles or so which I think was "Larkstoke" - 1.5miles long, 426ft ascent at an average gradient of 5.4%, although another 14-15% gradient in many places, and this hill broke the group immediately. One person slowed right at the start even before the hill, another dropped away in the first 100m or so, and a couple slowed between about 1/3 - ½ way up - the man (in a Cavendish World Champion kit who was very strong on the flat) dropped first and then his wife/girlfriend (on a really nice Focus) a bit later. I think this was Mark & Sue Oakes as these 2 people finished about 6 minutes behind me overall. I was left following the person who'd gone off very fast and almost caught him by the top. The two of us then rode all the way back to the finish together.

The weather had been OK to this point but just after this hill is rained on and off quite heavily and I got soaked, although it was not cold rain and the pace was high enough to keep warm. Not pleasant following someone's wheel though with a face full of spray!

Although I'd not done this route before quite a lot of it was on previous Sportives I have done in the area such as The Pedal for Parkinson's, Cyclists Fighting Cancer and Shakespeare 100 for example, and this helped because I could pace myself reasonably well knowing where a number of the climbs were going to come. Because of this I got a PR on the "Park Hill" and "Hampton Lucy Drag to A439" segments as well. The "Hampton Lucy Drag to A439" is exactly that a real drag, and its a segment that I created so I have only myself to blame!

As I said I went out on this ride with the intention of completing between 3:30-4:00 hours, and rode hard.  The speed from the groups helped enormously and I finished according to my Garmin in 3:39:56 an average speed of 17.5mph. I was really pleased with this. When I uploaded to Strava I was 2nd fastest on the route. I have moved down since and at the time of writing am 7th of 60. Two of those times are from previous years so I am actually 5th for the 2012 ride. For me this is a stunning achievement and I am really pleased. I also got a few "PR" on some of the segments I have ridden before as well, thanks to working with or chasing the person I rode to the end with.

The official timing placed me at 20th position (out of ~478 riders) with a time of 3:40:04 which was even better that I could have hoped for.

Here's my moment of Strava glory:

And here is a link to the ride in Strava proper:

It was a good job I got my back brake sorted out as only have a front brake in the wet would not have been a great experience.

All in all - a good ride - enjoyable, good route and a great personal achievement.

And the event? Well organised. Well marshalled. Could have done without crossing as many of the busy roads to Stratford but this is a problem for all routes in this area. A good route, and glad I did not do the 100 mile route.

Update 11 June 2011

Pedal for Parkinsons Stratford On Avon, 10 June 2012

As I mentioned earlier I was riding the Pedal for Parkinsons in Stratford On Avon on Sunday. I rode it last year and "won" so there was a bit of self induced pressure to replicate the achievement this year. Also this year one of my sons had agreed to ride it as well, although he was doing the shorter (20 mile) route whilst I was doing the 60 mile route again.

As 60 miles is not really a challenge I had chosen to ride down again. Noel rang up and said what was I doing and was I up for a ride on the day. I explained that I was prior booked but there was nothing to stop him joining us on the line. However the problem would be that as we had a car full we could not give him a lift home. In the event I called in on the way down at 7.20am and we rode down together to the Gospel Oak Lane, Snitterfield  turn just before Stratford. Noel rode like a demon and my average (from home to Stratford Racecourse was a creditable 18.1mph - Thanks Noel!

People were already signing on so I waited for the family to arrive, and then my son & I signed on. I met Tim Beattie there (from work) who lives locally and had brought his son down to ride the 5 mile family route. There was a short safety briefing and some photos and then we all started en-masse. I say en-masse but the event is pretty small and low-key, there only being about 50-60 riders maximum. The riders also tend to be not the normal "sportive" MAMIL types, with a lot of first time and family leisure riders. Of the 60 people or so the majority also do the 20 mile option.

My son and I were at the back at the start so we were caught in a bit of a gaggle of less experienced riders. I was also unsure about how well my son would manage as he cycles, but not a lot. We started to pull through the riders and steadily made progress up the field over the first few miles. I was tracking my son's speed and riding slightly behind and out to shield him from what little traffic there was. However we were still flying along at around 18-20mph and by Long Marston, where the route split, were either near or at the front. I was more worried that we were going too fast, especially for me to maintain pace for the whole 60 miles.

My son turned off onto the short route and despite my concerns about long term pace over the whole ride I put some more pace down to catch people who I knew were in front. I was trying pretty hard and reeling in a few people in every few miles - I felt pretty good and seemed to be one of the fitter and stronger riders and wanted to create a gap as early as possible - if I were to win again.

We came up to a turn after about 12 miles or so and there was a small check point on the turn, so I called my number and carried on. There were 4-5 already riders there getting a drink, so I knew I had gained some places but had no idea if they were the leaders. Immediately after this checkpoint a pretty big hill loomed. I dropped to the small ring and dug in - pretty soon I was in bottom gear (34-28) and really working hard. A quick glance at my Garmin showed a fairly scary 182bpm Heart Rate and the gradient at about 12%, so I eased up a little and plodded on. The gradient started to ease a bit but I kept pushing guessing that this hill must be a Strava segment and the end was probably at the very top rather than a false summit I could see ahead. Getting home later showed this to be Camden Hill:

I got a stunning 3rd place in this segment. I was right to press on because this segment is all the way to the top whilst another segment (Campden/Nebsworth Hill) is shorter and only covers the steepest part. I got a 3rd here because I pushed all the way, but on the shorter part of the climb was only 12th quickest as the quick people slowed after a faster climb over the steeper part.

I had looked behind part way up and saw the people at the checkpoint climbing some distance behind me but felt I could probably pull away from them. I pressed on feeling fairly good but - disaster - then got held up at a level crossing at Chipping Camden. I waited for over 5 minutes and the following group caught me, putting all my efforts back to zero. When the gates finally opened I had to push hard again to try to rebuild the gap that I had worked hard for just 10 minutes ago. The only advantage of the level crossing was it gave me an enforced rest.

There was a rdie through Chipping Camden and a few miles later an exciting descent of Dovers Hill - I'm glad it wasn't an ascent. I have climbed Saintbury Hill a couple of times on other sportives and Dovers Hill looks much tougher.

I kept pushing and got to the 2nd stop. Again it was still hard to tell if where I was in the field as the 2nd stop was a joint long/short route checkpoint and there were a number of other people there. I filled my water bottle and continued having stopped for just a few minutes. I knew the roads reasonably well by this point as have ridden them many times before. This years route was similar to previous years but had been changed in several places. It was a long drag and I kept pushing although in some places was starting to feel the miles in my legs (I'd already done 19miles to get down to the start). Once I crossed the A46 in a northerly direction I knew that the route was less hilly and more of a slog up towards Spernal, so on I continued. I got to the 3rd checkpoint and I think I caught the person out a bit and a quick verbal check confirmed my lead position. From here it was a continued drive to make sure I did not get caught - although I could not see anyone behind its hard to keep looking back and obviously its easier for a chaser to see someone and catch than the leader to keep eyes in the back of your head.
 
As we approached Aston Cantlow we were surprisingly directed up to Aston Cantlow rather than continue straight on and back over the A46 to Binton. Whilst the short climb was unwelcome, crossing the A46 at Binton is challenging at the best of times so this was a good improvement to the route safety. There was then a meander back into the west of Stratford, and suddenly we were back at the racecourse. It turned out the route was 55.8 miles rather than 60.

I was again the first back (hurray!) so my efforts were worth it. What was even better was my son was first back for the short route by a good 5 minutes as well, so a family double. We had some pictures taken, a chat with some of the staff, and then a cup of coffee and packed up. The 2nd place rider came in about 10 minutes behind, so I convinced myself that I had about a 15 minute winning margin if had not got caught by the crossing.

My parents had come up to watch (as both I and my son were riding) so my mum saw us both "win" although my dad was not having one of his better days and was asleep in the car when we both got back.

We then went to a pub in Binton for a very nice lunch and then went home.

The weather was excellent - warm, sunny with just a slight breeze - I got a good top up for my cyclist tan. If the weather had been like the day before (very windy) or the day after (very wet) it would have been a very unpleasant ride.

For the ride statistics it was 55.8 miles duration. Ride time was 3:12:48, average speed was 17.4mph, maximum was 35.7mph. I was very pleased with the average as it was all solo with no drafting at any point.

The route was good, very well sign posted for both the cyclist to follow the route and plenty of warnings for other road users.

The Parkinson's Society even pulled their finger out this year and got an updated web page up the next day here.

And here's a photo of me and my son:

My mum took some photos so a selection of the most flattering are on the Pictures tab of the blog.

There was a goody bag - not a great deal of use I must say but the conversation piece was this:

 No one was exactly sure what it is. Any way as I don't like coconut in any form (and nor does anyone else in the family) it will remain a mystery.

Update 4-June-2012

Weather was better so took the opportunity for a ride on the Monday.

The wind was blowing to the West so I made a bit of an effort on the "Leg Sapper" segment and got to 8th position with a PR and a time of 2:19 against the previous best of 2:28, equivalent to 1mph faster. This moved me from about 19th to 8th. I was pleased with this.

Took in a climb of Rose Hill - it felt painful but got another PR of 3:37 vs. 3:41 from March earlier this year and moving me from 20th to 18th.

After Rose Hill took my normal route round to Tardebigge as the intention was to have a ride of Unicorn Hill and Prospect Hill in Redditch to see if I could eat into Dave's times. I was not really sure where exactly I was going and spent a long time looping back on myself to get to the town centre. Finally I got there and came upon Unicorn Hill rather quickly. I recognised it from the Halfords Tour Series on the TV a few weeks ago and having had a look at the map the day before, but it came up a bit quick and I fumbled the gears to drop to the small ring. It was not too bad and I was treating it as a bit of a sighter ride for a better attempt later. I then went down Prospect Hill (its actually a One Way road) and went all the way to the traffic lights at the bottom and turned around to come back up as I was not sure exactly where it started from. Again I treated it as a bit of a sighter ride and while didn't loaf I didn't give it the beans either. Swung left at the top and rode in what I though was the direction of Beoley.

It all went a bit wrong here as Redditch seems to be lots of areas (housing and industrial) only linked by busy (bike unfriendly) dual carriageways. The long and the short of it was a long looping ride round Redditch before finally recognising something I'd seen before and getting to Beoley. I went home via Icknield Street, but again with no real segment hunting aim. 

More importantly was that on Unicorn Hill I was only 3 seconds behind Dave at 28 (vs 25) seconds and only 1 place in 15th position. That 3 secs should be easy especially if I can approach it better next time. The other reason for trying Unicorn Hill is that it is a direct comparison with some Pro cyclists. The top 7 times were all set during the Tour Series Race and the KOM is Dean Downing who set a time of 13secs - over twice as fast as my time - and he rode up at 28.6mph! That's why they're Pros I guess.

On Prospect Hill on the 1st attempt I was in a strong 4th place at 1:07 although a long time behind Dave's KOM time of  0:49. That will need some real effort.

There were also quite a few other segments in Redditch that I rode without realising and now I know where they are I'll definitely have a go for them. The only problem is trying to get back out of Redditch!

Total ride distance was 56miles in 3:19:18 giving an average of 16.8mph and the total climbing was 2989ft. I probably could have made a slight improvement if I'd known where I was going in Redditch but my legs did feel quite tired for some reason

As an observation the horrible noises from the Focus FSA Mega EXO BB have gone at the moment - I haven't done anything. Hopefully a replacement is on the way from Wiggle so we'll see what happens. I'll be riding ~80 miles next weekend on the Pedal for Parkinsons ride so I hope it is OK.

Update 10.00pm: Dave's been out to have another go at the Unicorn Hill segment and gained 8 seconds - not so sure I can catch that, but I am flattered that he thought I'd pass his previous time and needed/wanted to post a faster time!
Also went out with my wife this evening after dinner and rode (her on the BSO and me on my Mongoose) another 9 miles. I am only 21 miles from reaching the 1/2 way point of the 2012 mileage target, and hopefully will run this off tomorrow.

Update 15 May 2012

Good ride on Sunday - 68 mile run down to Evesham with Noel. Average of 16.6mph so pretty good. It was quite windy and although we shared the pace setting by about 45 miles I was really feeling it, although I perked up a bit at around 55 miles, so I think some food had kicked in. The drag back from Evesham can be hard work as its "uphill" most of the way - nothing too steep or long but always uphill. Here's the ride:

 

I signed myself and Noel up for the Wheel Heroes 100 miler Sportive from the race course at Stratford on Avon for the 27 May. We did it last year and it was pretty good. Good route down to some of the Cotswolds, 4 good (free) feed stations, and well organised. Last year I cruised it and Noel really struggled - again it was windy although he got his own back later in the year when I struggled on the Shakespeare 100 in September. I'm looking forward to it although have not got any where near 100 miles yet this year. Based on the weekend just gone I need to keep the miles down in the preceding week.

I am also doing the Pedal for Parkinsons (picture of me on the website!) ride again (also from Stratford race course) on 10 June. Last year I cycled down, rode the ride and "won". One of my sons has surprisingly volunteered to do it with me this year although he'll do the 20 mile route vs. me doing the 60 mile route. I'm planning to ride down again this year but depends on the weather I think. Let's hope the weather is OK for that as well. My dad has Parkinsons so its a small way to do something that I'd do anyway.

Bad news - down to only 4 KOM - a couple of people have uploaded rides from last year and stolen 3 or 4 off me. Bah!