Velo Birmingham

I rode the Velo Birmingham on 24 September 2017

I might write a few words about it later but in the meantime I had my Garmin Virb running at various points and here are the videos I created:

The first few miles from the start:

The "epic" climb of St Kenelms Pass:

This final few miles:

Tour of Britain 2017 - Stage 8 - Start in Worcester

We went to the see the start of Stage 8 of the Tour of Britain in Worcester on Sunday 10 September

We were near the start line so got a good glimpse of both the team buses and bikes but also the riders riding to sign on and then the start itself. 

Here is a  large number of photos:

Team Lotto Jumbo

Team Katusha

Team Quickstep

Team Cannondale

Detail of climbs and feed zones taped to stem (Team Cannondale)

One of the Cannondale riders was using disk brakes

No Barriers at Team Connandale

Dan Martin - Team Quickstep

Elia Viviani - Team Sky

Tao Geoghegan Hart - Team Sky

Christain Knees (I think) - Team Sky

Alex Dowsett - Team Movistar

Mark Cavendish - Team Dimension Data

Cycling Around Mallory Park, Leicestershire

I spent a pleasant late August evening cycling around the Mallory Park circuit. 

I managed to average 19.7mph over 1hr15mins - 25 miles. I was pleased with this performance as it was entirely solo. There was no one at a similar pace to me - a few really fast people on full aero bling and the rest slower than me.

Here's a video of about the 3rd lap I did - average of circa 20.5mph:

Mallory Park is open for Cycling from 6pm-9pm each Wednesday evening. 

Link is here: https://www.cyclingmallory.com/events-calendar

Rapha Exclusivity or Rapha Tat?

I normally sign up for the Strava Monthly challenges - they are there and it costs nothing

I normally manage the "Grand Fondo" distance challenge (just over 60 miles) and get just over 50% of the monthly distance challenge. The monthly climbing ones are more in my grasp and I probably get 3/4 of them through the year. Having been on holiday to the French Alps and Pyrenees for the past 3 years the climbing challenges have been done and dusted in just over a week.

This year (2017) as well at the normal Strava challenges in July there were additional challenges - the "Eurosport Peaks Challenge (ride)" and the "Rapha Rising" challenge. Given that the Strava Climbing challenge for July was 26,247ft and the Rapha challenge was only 15,092ft (4600m) the latter was a lot easier. I signed up as normal for them and sure enough duly climbed a lot more than required - 54,954ft to be precise - and thought no more about it.

Here is the evidence (Courtesy of veloviewer):

A few weeks ago a small black (and expensive looking) package dropped through the letter box, and when I opened it was a tangible Strava Achievement:

Gone now are the virtual achievements that I was used to, here is something from the Internet that I ca actually touch and feel. I really don't know what to do with it. I think I will put it somewhere safe so in a few years time my sons can get it out and it will have some tangible value. People will reminisce and say - "my I remember when a company could create value by creating an image and this overcharging customers for the same stuff you could get elsewhere!"

Just to prove the pretentiousness these are the words embossed inside:

Lets be honest - I went on holiday somewhere intersting to ride my bike up some "iconic" mountains - its not become part of what I am.

Fair play to Rapha for putting thier money where their mouth is  - but you can see why the clothes cost what they do when you have for factor in making woven bagdes and sending them to members of the public.

I also do have to admit that despite the comments above I have an item of Rapha clothing - but in my defence I was given this. Its a convoluted tale but a supplier to the company I work for is Austrian and a friend of Bernie Eisel. Some discussion later and this arrived:

 

Personally signed as you can just about see below:

Its a medium and whilst I am normally a medium this is what I guess is called a racing fit - I have to breathe in to do it up but once in and on the bike its OK. It does look great and it is comfortable. Given that it is unique to me I have worn it only a few times - not sure of the value of Bernie vs. say Chris Froome but its pretty valuable to me. Thanks Bernie.

Mountain Biking Again

At Easter 2016 I used a Red Letter Voucher to go Mountain Biking with MudTrek. It was so good that I chose to go again in 2017 and paid for it myself as well.

Again a really good day. Excellent guiding from Jay and hospitality before and after. A challenging route with a bit of everything mixed in - single track, double track, trails and roads. We ended up doing 33 miles and 4500ft of climbing. This year I was completely done in by about 25 miles. The last hour or so was painful. Every part of me ached and I was totally knackered, but the feeling on completion was fantastic

The ride is on Strava here

It looked like this:

And here's a few photo's of me truly:

100 Climbs No95 - Black Mountain

I went mountain biking in South Wales again over Easter. But I also took my road bike and tried to squeeze in some other hills. It was a holiday with my wife as well so I made just one ride - that of the 100 Climbs No95 - Black Mountain. 

We struggled to find the start of the climb from the description in the book, so we drove all the way to the car park at the top. This meant that the ride would start with the descent and then I'd turn round at the bottom and ride up.

I got the bike out of the car and got changed. It was not cold but the wind at the top was quite brisk so I put several layers on to keep warm. I ended up needing these layers on the descent - I pedalled as hard as I could to try and warm up but the speed ended up faster than I was comfortable with. For this reason I went a lot further "down" the hill than I knew was necessary in order to warm up and be sure of starting the segment properly. In the end I had about 1-1½ miles of warm up which, together with the descent was just about enough.

The bottom of the climb starts somewhere near the small group of houses and the bridge (I think). There's a short kick up which saw me drop onto the smaller front ring. However I felt strong enough to use the 3rd and 4th gears for some time although I needed 2nd (34-25) for a while

There was about a mile of riding to the cattle grid, but once over the grid it levelled just enough to get into 3rd (34-23) and accelerate from ~8 to 9mph and felt quite strong. This was the pattern for most of the climb - I felt strong enough to ride 3rd pretty well all the way apart from a couple of points (one of the hairpins for example) where the gradient kicked up a little. The last ¾ mile or so ease off even more and I got into the 34-15 gear.

There was a tail wind to a degree for most of the climb but all the layers I put on at the start were starting to be 1 too many and I was pretty hot by the end.

I rode past the car park to be sure I had "summitted" and then rode back to the car. The ride was done.

Here's a video of the climb (with the extra bit at the bottom):

The Strava segment is here: OFFICIAL 100Climbs No95 Black Mountain

The data is:
Climb Length: 4.4 miles
Height Gain: 1246ft
Average Gradient: 5% (Strava Cat 2)
My time: 27:52
My position: 831 of 5316

With the time and overall position I was ecstatic - it was a great performance and I felt there is another minute in there - not getting too hot with the one too many layers I had on and knowing how to pace better could easily get a minute out of the climb - roll on next attempt!

"Retro" Cycling Jersey

I am not over keen on personal photos but I got a "retro" Peugeot cycling jersey for Christmas and today was the first day of the year the weather was good enough for short sleeves

I think its an iconic (risk of overused word) jersey and looks great:

Not Tom Simpson

Whether I do it justice compared to the originals I'll leave it to you:

Tom Simpson