South Downs Charity Ride

I’ve just spent the last 4 days in Wales, visiting my Dad who’s recently been admitted to Shrewsbury hospital. He’s not been too good lately, suffering from a severe infection which has left him weak and disorientated. At 86 years old and suffering from Diabetes these infections take their toll, but seeing him yesterday before I left for Brighton he was almost unrecognisable from last week. His strength and recovery never fail to amaze me and he has put this down time and time again to his years of cycling. Reading his early years memoirs on his blog will give you some insight into this seemingly endless supply of resilience. Things are still not great, but we’re currently waiting on a decision for him to be discharged and sent home.

A couple of weeks ago I’d decided to raise some money for the Diabetes UK charity by doing a sponsored ride. After returning from the USA I’d been pondering riding the South Downs Way in one hit, from Winchester to Eastbourne and this seemed like a challenge worthy of the cause. I’m planning the ride for Saturday 25^th October and will be starting out from Winchester at 6:30am and getting into Eastbourne in the dusk at approx 18:00-19:00. The last couple of hours will be in low light so I’ll be investing in some good night riding lights, probably the Race MaXx 2. If you’d like to sponsor me you can do so online through justgiving.com. I’m aiming to raise £500 over the next few weeks so any amount donated would be very much appreciated.

For one reason or another I’ve not been out on the bike as much lately, so I’ve got 3 weeks to get back into shape for the ride. To help with training I’ve given the Swobo a makeover, converting it to a cyclocross steed for the winter months with more ergonomically designed bars, stem and a pair of Michelin Cyclocross Mud 2 tyres. I took the new set up for a spin off road in Wales this weekend and its great and flies up hill. Descending is a little dodgy as the frame geometry isn’t really designed for bumpy single track! I’ll mainly be using it on the Downs Link to ride home from work where it performs perfectly on the slight gradients.

Next month I’ll be returning with Das Swobo to Berlin to tackle the Maurweg once more, though this time starting at Midnight… yes yes! the Midnight Maurweg will happen!! :) Not sure how to tackle there not being a ferry yet or not being able to see any signposts (which are bad enough in daylight), but these are all minor details :) Meat's in, who else?

I am a 1x1 convert

Pedal Spanner started strongly, however it appears the winter season has kicked in and no contributions, so I am going to slip in my first 'spannerblog'.

I have gone from cycling for fun to function. I now commute 6 miles each way to work. This weekend I sold my car and promptly invested in an engagement ring! - removing the temptation as the light gets less and the temp bar drops (man is it cold in the morning). so what does this mean for my cycling? I now start out of the gun at 8am and quickly get into a 20mph groove, and do not go below for 2 miles until I reach Guildford 'City' centre. Here I disect cars and risk death for 2 miles, accelerating hard and I feel it is helping my breaks. However, about this stage my lungs are normally wheezing so badly, I think it is the mixture of the cold and no proper warm up that makes a few puffs on the ventolin essential to keep breathing. the final 2 miles are a pacy burst to the industrial estate, then a mile cool down with some sprints, 1 past an abbertoir which is pretty nasty when you are trying hard to fill your lungs with fresh air! 

I love cycling in to work. I love not needing a car. I love working in the cycling industry, looking at bikes all day and making phone calls to the top marketing peeps from all top cycling companies. I feel lucky. 

I also feel compelled to let you know a perverse act I am soon to perform. I am going to sell my Trek full suss and buy a steel Surly 1x1  SS MTB (in orange). I rode one last weekend in Wales, and it was so amazing, I had to push up some hills but the whole, no need to worry about what gear you are in, whether your chain will slip, cleaning all cables after the ride, corroding linkages in the susspension etc. it was awesome! it was brutal, it was unforgiving but the most back to basics fun I can remeber on a bike. I may tire on a 5hr epic, but how often do we do them any more. 

I suggest you all give it a go. I was in the 'right' gear for about 5% of my ride, but it didn't seem to matter, see some mud - go fast so you don't get stuck; see a hill -  go fast so you get momentum to get up it; see a downhill - attack then enjoy a break and the thrill!. Get home, blast with some water, lube the chain, put in bedroom all shiny and don't worry about the shifting next ride etc...  I am a convert :) 

just as a riding update. Soph has been coming to see me evry weekend so squeezing a weekend ride has not been appealing, but as she moves in with me next weekend then Sunday morning rides will become the norm, MTB and Road - very excited, it looks like Godalming is a hub for cyclists. 

That's it for my first spannerblog, hope it didn't bore you all too much...

Guildford Cycle Challenge

A month on from knackering my knee in the Devil Ride, I've moved my saddle up a bit, bought a more comfortable one, and invested in some Schwalbe Stelvio 700x25 road tyres to replace the 700x32 Borough CX tyres that come as standard on the 08 Tricross sport. While Bert and co were attacking the Trans Cambrian, Katie and I decided to do a more local Cyclosportive, the Guildford Cycle Challenge, run by the Charlotteville Cycle Club. They had three distances on offer: 28, 56, & 83 miles, so we went for the 56 miler, hoping my knee would hold out. Despite the terrible weather on Saturday, Sunday had only a few patches of light drizzle as we drove the 40 miles from North London to Guildford, and so we set off with the 08:55 group in good spirits.

The first 26 miles or so were great, the legs felt good, average speed was slightly better than expected. However, at about 27 miles we rounded a bend to find a 21% sign.. for some reason I'd misread the website, and set off happy in the knowledge that the steepest climb was 7.5% (I've since realised that was for the Southdowns Challenge, on 21 Sept). Coming around a corner to clap eyes on that put me straight into denial... "We probably turn off before that", I muttered to Katie. The road steepened to about 10% and then tailed off again. More denial... "Looks like that was it, perahaps someone defaced the sign, there's no way that was 21%". Of course the proper hill was around the next bend, and I counted more cyclists on foot than on wheels. Luckily I've a 11-34 cassette, and a 30t grannie ring, and Katie has about the same, so we both manage to stay on our wheels to the top, where the photographer is waiting - perhaps you can detect the smile in the second photo is more of a grimace. The remainder of the route was reasonably hilly, with a couple more significant climbs, and I used them to try getting out of the saddle a bit more on the shorter ones. It certainly makes a big difference to my overall progress, and provided I don't do it too often it doesn't seem to kill the legs too badly (a full length sportive might be a different story though).

We finished up very low down in the rankings, but had a good day out, and will probably enter the Southdowns Challenge in 11 days time - anyone up for that?

Trans Cambrian

It was with some trepidation that I drove back to Wales this weekend, literally to the heart of the storm that was lashing the South West coast. I'd decided to stay with Kelv Friday night at his new pad in Porthcawl which just happened to be at the focal point of all the weather warning reports I'd heard before leaving. Bridgend under water, A470 closed, Taff close to breaking point. I did begin to wonder if we'd make it at all whilst sailing down the M4. It was looking like it was going to be yet another wet and windy affair.

Thankfully the weather lifted later that night, allowing us to venture out onto the rocky seafront at Porthcawl armed with a bottle of port. Kelv had been leant a book by his new boss with the subtext 'An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life'. We celebrated his recent life changes and his return to work by burning it on the beach. I've never burnt a book before. Another perfect evening of sportive preperation.

I'd signed up for the Trans Cambrian after completing the Devil Ride, relishing the oppourtunity to enter another event in my old back yard. At 6:15am Sunday morning Bob's brother Darren and myself drove down to Rhayader in a light drizzle. It was steadily getting warmer and the forecast was promising - a million miles from the severe weather on Friday.

Clive greeted us at the start and we signed on and received our timing chips. Organisation was spot on, plenty of parking and a quick and simple signon process. We wanted to get an early start and headed out with the first 10 riders of the day tackling the first climbs out of Rhayader towards St Harmon. Looking at the route it was clear that the hardest climbs of the ride were confined the first 30 miles. The road to Llani via Pantydwr and Twlych has a good number of testing climbs to get the legs warmed up, but the real beauties were still to come at Clywedog.

The only slight hitch of the day was in Llanidloes, where the clear and well sign posted route was confused by a route indicator for another event. This unfortunately caught out a few people I met on the ride costing them a few miles in the wrong direction. I looked like it had been added after the event sign posts had been placed, as the rest of the route was perfectly sign posted, including caution signs and marshalls on the major road junctions.

Climbing out of Llanidloes it was amusing to see some names painted on the road a la Tour De France, stating 'Sean is Gay' and 'Go Llani Go' amongst others. At the top of the first climb I was suffering badly, nearly threw up and couldn't get into any rythym whatsoever. Perfect timing to be photographed by the now familar sight of George Burgess. Friday nights shenanigins were paying back heavily and I couldn't get comfortable, had knee pains, aching back and feet and a persistent headache. Heading past Clywedog I remembered I'd managed to avoid riding up Bwlch-y-Gle nearly my entire time living in Wales, only tackling it once when I was 19. Today there was no escape and I plodded up with empty legs.

After Clywedog the majority of the big climbs were out of the way and I began to recover from the tough start to the morning. I was now on well ridden roads heading from Staylittle over Dylife to Machynlleth - my training route when I'm home in Wales. The last climb out of Dylife was completely obscured by cloud which was a real shame, the scenery up there is some of the best in the area and Cadir Idris and Snowdon can easily be seen on a clear day. Dropping out of the clouds there's an awesome 7 mile descent into Machynlleth on the valley floor below. Ahead of me there were 2 other riders and we were the first to reach the food station just outside Mach.

Mach to Talybont was fast and flat on good surfaces and the weather was starting to improve making the Nant y Moch section the most enjoyable of the whole route. The scenery up there is awesome, almost alpine in places. I overheard a couple other riders saying it was the most spectular sportive they'd entered for scenery. They continued to be blown away by the route, heading then to Devils Bridge, Cwmystwyth and finally the Elan Valley. I rode the last 30 miles with a few guys from Stoke who were motoring along trying to make up time for their wrong turn in Llanidloes. I finally started to feel good towards the end, spurred on by my parents who'd been out and about on the route all morning.

At the finish within seconds of scanning my timing chip I was presented with certificate and timings, followed by a drink, sandwich and event tshirt. 10 minutes later I was enjoying a well earned cuppa and a leg massage. Perfect. After the glorified informal ride that was the Burgess Hill Rumble last week, it was a great feeling to be back participating in a superbly organised event. I clocked 5 hours 14 mins - 16 minutes off Gold and 15 minutes within Silver. It had been a great day, awesome scenery and well organised. The food stations were also very well stocked with a good selection, though I was first to reach both so not sure how much was left later in the day!

This week I'll I've got training Thursday and then my third race of the year Saturday at Hillingdon. The Southern Sportive is on Sunday... can I make it three sportive weekends in a row?? We'll see...