Sunday 17 August 2008

Caerphilly Mountain

After having no plans to ride today, due to assumption weather would be poo, plans changed and persuaded the Ferg to go for a spin. Rather shocked to receive a positive reply from Bertrude to my asking if he had raced today (at 11.25AM) and also having seen the team pursuit boys destroy the WR again excuses seemed weak, and lycra was donned.

Nothing remarkable about the ride except the ascent of Caerphilly Mountain, which is real stinker. I'm not sure exactly how steep (very) / long (not hugely) it is, but I can't think of much steeper (last few hundred metres of galibier?? Porlock Hill??) I had lower gears today and was down to under 6mph at times. Fergus managed it with 1 stop compared to 2 last time, and considering his smallest gear is prob 39x25 that's good going. I'll have to drag Bertrude up there sometime and see what he thinks of the brute.

Great to see Bert having a crack at racing. I didn't actually realise he could physically get out of bed before 11AM on a Sunday :-) Having done a few Handicap races (Abergeveny) many years ago I remember how hard they are, and the horrific rise in pace when the E/1 group catch you. Find a nice 4th Cat only race with a few hills and I reckon he'll be right up there at the business end.

On the new bike front, Colnago seem to have some new models for 2009 so I suspect that's where I'll be looking. The x-bike will do fine over the winter though.

1 comment:

Alan Buttler said...

:) I had my number pinned on by 9:00am! Was a great day, felt good after a blistering training ride on Thursday with the 2/3 from the club. Will post a wee report in a mo. How'd the bike feel?