Road Cycling

Soldato
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24 Jul 2003
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5,664
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floating down the Liffey
Sorry to hear that but dude you shouldn't have kicked his car - that was wrong. I totally get your anger - but you can't go losing your cool like that.

Seems like it was resolved sensibly in the end, seemed like a sensible solution for both parties to take care of their own damages.

So you are saying that kicking a car deserves physical violence?

RMzBIc3l.jpg
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Oct 2006
Posts
5,386
Drivers recently do seem to be getting even more agitated. Glad that didn't end up with any worse injuries!
I had a silly exchange with a driver in Surrey yesterday. He veered me into the kerb to have a go and came out with the usual "cyclist" insults.

After reading time and time again on Road CC that cyclists being knocked off by careless drivers, if you are not physically injured it doesn't matter to the police, they aren't interested. A tin box is worth more than a cyclist unless you are seriously hurt and even they they will get off lightly

They don't care even with physical injuries as a result of a collision. I got left hooked before with video footage and after initial brief chat the driver shot off. Local cop shop knew the driver (wouldn't tell me what for but let's just say it was probably quite serious as the whole station knew him)... They seemed to do a pretty thorough job to be fair but the Traffic Criminal Justice Unit decided the case was closed after charging the owner of the car (his girlfriend) for failing to notify who was driving at the time (no response to NIP). That's not case closed... that's a separate offence.
 
Man of Honour
OP
Joined
16 May 2005
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31,299
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Manchester
Got back from Milan last night and have to get out to a wedding prep (not mine :p) thing in a bit but this weather was too good to pass up. Headed out for a quick 35 miles and put my foot down a bit. Definitely felt the effort but hopefully it's helped clear out some of the 4kg of prosciutto and cheese I ate over the last few days...

https://www.strava.com/activities/913483993

Pretty happy with the speed and average power :)

First Crit in 2 hours. Race legs? Maybe...

Didn't realise that is today :eek: Guess you're done now but... er... belated good luck!
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Sep 2006
Posts
14,358
Good luck!

Good luck mate, go smash it.

Didn't realise that is today :eek: Guess you're done now but... er... belated good luck!

Can confirm, still alive. 4th or 5th wheel in the second pack, 1 lap down, actually saw the lead pack finishing. Gave it a good few punts up the short rise/climb into some gusts :cool:

https://www.strava.com/activities/913431249

Will give a little write up later as Saturdays housework and foodshop were delayed today :p
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Oct 2006
Posts
5,386
Something I realised today... down windy descents many car drivers can't take the fact a cyclist is going faster than them so they probably drive the bends better following the lead... as soon as they overtake they have no example to follow and start braking for every slight bend. As a result, they hold the cyclist up.
 
Caporegime
Joined
28 Jun 2005
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48,104
Location
On the hoods
Deep joy, the bottom bracket on my year old single speed commuter has started grinding. It's a crap FSA job so the seals will be made of cheese, so no wonder it's going. All of which leaves me with the delightful job of trying to prise a square taper bottom bracket out of the frame. I've got a decent shimano one to replace it with so hopefully that will last longer than a year.
 
Man of Honour
OP
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Manchester
Dropped my 810 whilst at the shop earlier and broke it :/ Out of warranty too (which for dropping you might not think I should claim on but it was literally only a 2 ft drop). Anyhow, it was on it's last legs anyhow I suppose. Had a look at repairing it and a replacement battery *might* do it but I can't be bothered messing with it just now.

Anyhow, placed an order for a Elemnt Bolt so it looks like I'm joining that crew. Wiggle price seemed best @ £176 with platinum.
 
Soldato
Joined
22 May 2003
Posts
10,855
Location
Wigan
Dropped my 810 whilst at the shop earlier and broke it :/ Out of warranty too (which for dropping you might not think I should claim on but it was literally only a 2 ft drop). Anyhow, it was on it's last legs anyhow I suppose. Had a look at repairing it and a replacement battery *might* do it but I can't be bothered messing with it just now.

Anyhow, placed an order for a Elemnt Bolt so it looks like I'm joining that crew. Wiggle price seemed best @ £176 with platinum.

Still rocking the Edge 500 :D Its great as long as you know where you are going!

Beautiful day today, only my FOURTH ride on the road all year!

I did 50km, average power was OK, but I have nothing above 300w and over 250w is a struggle hahaha, sat at home feeling like I've done at least 100! Onwards and upwards! :)

My bike has a few squeeks and rattles, needs a bit of TLC, should be moving in two weeks all things being well so all my workshop tools will arrive.
 
Caporegime
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On the hoods
I'm using a 500 as well. Second hand to me a few years ago and still going strong. You can program in routes if you do it on the computer. Download the route as a tcx and copy it over to the garmin.
 
Man of Honour
OP
Joined
16 May 2005
Posts
31,299
Location
Manchester
Still rocking the Edge 500 :D Its great as long as you know where you are going!

Beautiful day today, only my FOURTH ride on the road all year!

I did 50km, average power was OK, but I have nothing above 300w and over 250w is a struggle hahaha, sat at home feeling like I've done at least 100! Onwards and upwards! :)

My bike has a few squeeks and rattles, needs a bit of TLC, should be moving in two weeks all things being well so all my workshop tools will arrive.

I do quite a lot of longer rides in unfamiliar territory so I think the dotted line routing would worry me a bit :p Vonhelmet does seem to manage pretty well with it though. Oh yeah, the other thing I couldn't live without is lazy BT automated uploading.

Ouch /re 4th ride of the year. That said, as unfit as you feel I bet you're still putting most of us to shame on here ;)

I'm using a 500 as well. Second hand to me a few years ago and still going strong.

This 810 is a warranty replacement after the mount broke on my last one. To be honest I've been close to jumping ship away from Garmin for quite a while due to all the minor niggles I and my friends have. I've heard so much good stuff about the Elemnt that it seemed an opportune time...
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Sep 2006
Posts
14,358
Can confirm, still alive. 4th or 5th wheel in the second pack, 1 lap down, actually saw the lead pack finishing. Gave it a good few punts up the short rise/climb into some gusts :cool:

https://www.strava.com/activities/913431249

Will give a little write up later as Saturdays housework and foodshop were delayed today :p

So yeah, Crit racing is quite fun if you like being near/on/past the rivet for an hour or so.

Initially I was a bit surprised that the pace didn't seem faster, having ridden with a Cat 3 rider from the club for some RR recon and despite starting at the back of the pack I'd made my way 2/3rds up the field by the end of the first few laps but on reflection it was a 'comfortable' pace keeping me around threshold and going slightly over for the short climb/rise, which is where I made most of my ground.

A break of around 10-15 riders made it off the front though this seemed to happen gradually, so I settled in with the 2nd bunch finishing 4th or 5th wheel & 1 lap (3-4 mins) down on the 1st bunch after the 1hour+3 laps. Winning bunch 24mph, 2nd bunch 23mph.

Quite a polite field, with no barging-jostling or shouting (I hear Hillingdon is very noisy) and everyone held their lines when required. I did clip a pedal on one turn and a few laps later a rider in front ground his crank on the same corner causing a rear wheel jump and skip to the side and a lot of soiled chamois... I had a few strong pulls on the front in to some nasty gusts up the climb which I quite enjoyed.

MK Bowl seemed like quite a good Crit to cut your teeth on and being a Cat 4 only field meant that there wasn't any real decimation though some riders had dropped out within 15-20 minutes due to either being blown or having mechanicals.

Avg HR was 92% of MHR and NP was a tad under Threshold for me. At the top of the climb 95/96% MHR (98% with a hard push), recovering down to 88% and remaining there until hitting the climb each lap. So having a decent level of fitness (riding hard for an hour, following a wheel quite closely, having good group riding skills and being able to regularly repeat suprathreshold efforts) is required if you want to last the entire race duration in a reasonably good position to keep the experience enjoyable :)

Will probably do a few more this year as it's good to spice things up!

(Think my new masseuse has left me in worse shape to be honest :p)
 
Soldato
Joined
22 May 2003
Posts
10,855
Location
Wigan
I do quite a lot of longer rides in unfamiliar territory so I think the dotted line routing would worry me a bit :p Vonhelmet does seem to manage pretty well with it though. Oh yeah, the other thing I couldn't live without is lazy BT automated uploading.
Ouch /re 4th ride of the year. That said, as unfit as you feel I bet you're still putting most of us to shame on here ;)

I just look at the map and try and remember, makes it more of an adventure...

I can manage a nice 200w average for rides, but like I said, no power above that. Can diesel along all day long though!
 
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