This Weeks Training

Rides this week : 65, 16, 16, and 45 miles.
A few things starting to wear out now as the bike has covered at least 2500miles. Chain and cassette replaced already, need a new deurelier cable as there is a rough spot where it meets the deurelier. I replaced the orriginal 32mm tyres to puncture resistant 23mm ones a while back which made a huge difference. I,ve also fitted a shorter stem and turned it over to the 'sportier' position which so far feels quite comfortable and I'm sure has increased my speed slightly. Before we do our trip it will have a thorough service and anything suspect will be replaced.
Off to Spain for 10 days in the morning but have sussed out some local bike hire shops and will try to do some riding while I'm out there otherwise I'm going to come home a stone heavier!
When I return on 6th July there will be 7 weeks to go!

Damage Report

I was a bit worried I had seriously damaged my bike after my tumble at the weekend, but a quick visit to Certini in Saltash confirmed a bent deurelier hanger which they quickly and easily straightened for me. Whew!

Newbury Magnificat - another tale of woe!

Initially the forecast for Sunday was terrible but by Saturday there was a glimmer of hope that our ride would remain dry until the early afternoon. As we waited on the start line however it was already drizzling. The plan was still to do the 127 mile route together.
We were released at 8 o'clock on the dot and after a few miles settled into a reasonable pace in quite a large group of riders. I knew George was behind me in the group and I tried to keep track of where he was but it was difficult with so many riders in close formation. The rain was getting heavier and the wind stronger all the time, and soon I had that horrible feeling of my shoes and shorts full of water,not nice at all. The number of riders getting punctures was ridiculous, it just seemed a matter of when rather than if!
Eventually the field started to thin out but by this time I had lost George. I did think about waiting at this point but it was quite likely that he had punctured so I carried on. I worked with a couple of equally paced riders for a while until a faster group came past and we hooked onto the back of them. We were now going at a fair old lick and it was good riding, but as we came to the first feed station I was struggling to keep up on the hills. I was thankful that they all pulled in.
Unfortunately the group was separated as people spent differing times in the feed station. I jumped back on the bike and chased after one rider I had been with most of the way but he was already 200yds up the road and try as I might to catch him I never did and after several miles gave up the chase.
Then disaster struck. I was riding through one of the villages on route and approached a 90deg right hand bend with a junction on the left. As I did so a car approached from the junction and I didn't think he was going to stop. I was busy looking at him rather than the road surface. The next thing I knew I was down and sliding along the road, my slide finally halted as I ran into the kerb. I got up and hobbled about for a few minutes with a bloody knee, elbow and hip. The most pain was coming from my hip. Another rider had stopped to pick my bike up and see that I was o.k. He said,"oh I see you did what I did and swapped to the 81 mile route". It was a double blow, not only had I fallen off but I had missed the turning for the 127 mile route as well!
After straightening out my brake levers which were both pushed badly out of line I got back on and gently rode on. Slowly I eased myself back into a rhythm but it soon became apparent I had damaged my deurelier, I was missing my lower gears and could see that it was twisted out of line with the chain. Each hill from thereon had to be taken standing in a higher gear. From that point on I just wanted to finish as soon as possible. My distance meter had become waterlogged and stopped working so I had no idea of how far I had to go so it was just a question of head down and get to the finish line. As soon as I had finished I was shivering violently. The only positive I can take was a decent time of 4hrs 50mins for the 81 mile route. I can understand now why a lot of riders wont ride in the rain!
All good experience for our end to end!

The Magnificat

Well anyone in the South of England will be fully aware of how wet and windy it was yesterday. It was raining heavily before I met Adie at the start line, he had cycled in from Newbury. Still optimistic we headed out in the first group at 08:00. 127 miles is a long way to ride even in good weather, so I started off spinning a lower gear than normal, just to make sure that I would still have some energy left to get me to the end. Adie started to move up the field and before long was out off sight, but I wasn't going to try and keep up, hoping there may be a tortoise and the hare situation later. The first feed station was a welcome site at around 40 mile's, by this time we were all soaked through and cold, the weather was relentless and the wind was increasing all the time. About a mile after the food stop was the route spilt, straight on for the 81 miler and right for the 127. I was very tempted at this point just to ride straight on, I was freezing, but Adie was ahead of me and so I turned right. At 61 miles there was a drinks stop and I took 5 minutes to warm up in the village hall, several riders gave up at this point. All the riders that stopped were looking tired and cold, there were lots of tales of brake failures and people unable to change gears or brake because their hands were too cold. I was feeling fine, so I headed off into the rain and wind once more. We climbed up onto a ridgeway on the South Downs where there was no shelter at all from the driving wind and rain. It was here that things started to get really bad, I got a puncture, I'd been passing people all day that were fixing punctures and thinking how lucky I was (Doh!). Fixing a puncture at the side of the road even in good weather can be difficult, but today, it was awful, my hands were so cold that I could hardly grip anything, never mind the twiddly things on the inner tube valves. It took me 20 minutes to get back on the road and by this time I was shivering violently. The next food stop was 16 miles away, so I kept on pedaling as hard as I could, trying to get warm, about 5 miles later the course turned North and the wind was at my back for the first time and boy did it help, all of a sudden I was flying along at 27 mph, with no need to pedal, it just shows how windy it really was. After 6 hours and 81 miles of cycling, I made it to the second food station. There were some very helpful volunteers there with hot cups of tea and sandwiches at the ready. I was given a hot cup of tea which I couldn't hold on too, I was shivering so hard the tea wouldn't stay in the cup, that's when a kind lady said " I think your race is over for today, its time you came into the warm", I wasn't so sure, I was convinced that I could finish, until she pointed out that there was still 46 miles to go and the wind and rain was getting worse. She led me into a room where to my surprise there were 9 other people wrapped up in blankets, their race was over too. I was given a sleeping bag and silver blanket to wrap up in and given copious amounts of tea to try and bring my temperature back up. I was shivering so hard it looked like I was having convulsions. In total 12 people ended up in this room, waiting for the broom wagon to come and rescue us and we were the lucky ones, lots of people were being picked up from the side of the road, there were tales of people who didn't even know their names by the time they were rescued. I opened my "Waterproof" pocket to get my phone and give Adie a call to see if he was OK, unfortunately my phone now has it's own wave, which rolls about inside the screen, thank goodness I was told to stop, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it too much further without needing to be rescued and with no phone I would have been in real trouble. I was in the hall for about two hours before the broom wagon arrived to take us back to Newbury and I'd like to thank the young volunteer who drove with her heating on full blast just to keep us warm.

Yesterday was the first time that I have had any doubt that I might not be able to complete the End to End. If the weather ever gets that bad on our ride, I think we may have to sit the day out, at least we've got some leeway with our time.

Training on the run up to the Magnificat.

Well its only a week to go before the 127 mile Magnificat. I'm still not sure if I can ride that far, but tweeks training may help. Sunday saw another sunny ride with the Behind the Bikeshed club. We met at Weyhill Church and rode a very fast hilly 60 miles. The pace was very fast and due to having been training with all my luggage for the trip recently, I found the going really hard. Most of the ride I found myself chasing the pack, which meant I was working much harder than I wanted too. However nearer to the end of the ride, when we were climbing up to the top of the causeway, some of the faster riders started to run out of steam. It was all a bit turtle and hare. I still had plenty left in my legs and felt really good when I got home.
I was working locally on Tuesday so decided that I would join the club ride that evening, it tends to be quite a fast 30 -35 mile ride starting at 18:15, we're normally home by 20:30. Not tonight though, again it was really fast and I was struggling to keep up.
We were flying through the Hampshire countryside and because of the pace I wasn't really paying attention to the route. When we dropped down into a little town, I though I would get my bearings, oh my word we were in Hungerford. We kept heading further away towards Swindon, when one of the guys got a bad puncture, which caused his tyres to split. 30 minutes later we were riding again, heading homeward at last. By the time I got home I had completed 50 miles (on a school night Doh!). Thankfully I felt ok the next morning.


That added to 20 miles on Thursday and another 50 on Saturday made up a total of 180 miles this week. Next week I'm working in Cornwall, so I'm taking my bike along, I'm looking forward to getting some training done with Adie.