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).
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?
3 comments:
God stuff - nice to hear your knee held out all the way. And good to see you're still keenly cycling; after the Devil Ride, it was 2 weeks before I bothered reassembling my bike, and now, a month later, I still haven't been out on it... :-( So, kudos!
Nice work James, the ride pretty much rode past my house in Godalming, I saw the cycle event sign, but was busy working. If I knew you were competing though I might have come and cheered you on :) Not sure about the south downs ride, I have only rode the 6 miles to work daily, so not sure if I would make it round! but it might be good preparation for the Marin dusk 'til dawn event in October...
go jammer! i am doing 12 coastal miles a day riding to work on my refurbished roadie, it is awesome, can't wait to get my mtb up and running again
keep it up mate
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