Road Cycling Essentials

[tl45]

THAT was a "recovery ride"?

Nice work! I was going to go out this evening, with all the best intentions, but shared a bottle of wine with the missus instead

My legs weren't exactly feeling fresh so made sure I kept heart rate around L2 and was spinning in region of 95rpm rather than pushing bigger gears. Didn't expect it to be that quick, last time I rode the route I pushed harder and didn't manage 18mph

 

[oli collett]

So anyone here doing the dragon ride on Sunday? Just prepped my bike for it tonight before I head to Wales tomorrow. Can't say I'm not nervous about it - not entirely sure how I will take the climbs what with there not being anything similar around London

Yes, doing the devil route

Most of the climbs are nice with a consistent 6% gradient. They appear to have reversed the route this year so two of the big ones are right at the start with black mountain at the end. Hopefully the profiles are similar.

The devils elbow is nasty, although with the reversed route I'm not sure how it's going to work. There's just a 200m section at around 20% but other than that there's not a lot of real sharp ones unless you're doing the devil route which includes the devils staircase, the last km being around 12% avg.

 

[Womble]

Yes, doing the devil route

Most of the climbs are nice with a consistent 6% gradient. They appear to have reversed the route this year so two of the big ones are right at the start with black mountain at the end. Hopefully the profiles are similar.

The devils elbow is nasty, although with the reversed route I'm not sure how it's going to work. There's just a 200m section at around 20% but other than that there's not a lot of real sharp ones unless you're doing the devil route which includes the devils staircase, the last km being around 12% avg.

Devil route? You must be crazy although saying that, when I registered for the 225km one last year the longest ride I had done was not even 100km!

Think its more the case of not blowing up rather then the climbs themselves being intimidating. Always too easy to power it up climbs (especially around here when they are quite short) only to really suffer later on.

That being said ... depending on how I feel, I may attempt to have a go on the devils elbow if it is indeed timed, just to see of course ho ho!

 

[FrenchTart]

I just realised that I hit 4000 miles so far for the year then compared myself to this guy and all sense of achievement went out the window

http://www.strava.com/athletes/1993015

 

[Berger]

Tough handicap race today, one of the biggest events on the calendar, had a big lot of riders from the next town over racing.

I was off +34 minutes from the first rider in a small group. We rolled out fairly easy, got caught by the +35 after only 5km, we lost 15 seconds when we had to wait for a car right at the start!

Stuck with them and we had a group of ten approx after dropping 4-6 riders. Swapped off OK for the next 30km. Then lost a few more riders on the return steep climb, we picked up a few passengers from earlier groups who then started to try and do turns and ended up coming through too quick and breaking our rhythm up, one guy had a word and they then just sat on which was ok. We picked off a few straggler riders over the next 10km who we managed to blow past quick.

Hilltop finish where we dropped the guys sitting on, halfway up is a small descent, I got mixed up with someone we were passing at the top and it cost me 10-20m on the group.

Made it to the top 20 seconds down on the guys I had been riding with, we picked up 5th, 9th and 10th, I rolled over about 13th, got pipped on the line by the fastest rider of the day from scratch.

61km, 1000m elevation, average power 271w, weighted average 290w.

Max speed 83.2kmh and 884w power.

I found that I was struggling to do turns on the flat a little without putting too much effort it, but then I wasn't the quickest on the climbs either! Managed to hold my own and went 10 minutes faster than I did last year!

 

[oli collett]

Devil route? You must be crazy although saying that, when I registered for the 225km one last year the longest ride I had done was not even 100km!

Think its more the case of not blowing up rather then the climbs themselves being intimidating. Always too easy to power it up climbs (especially around here when they are quite short) only to really suffer later on.

That being said ... depending on how I feel, I may attempt to have a go on the devils elbow if it is indeed timed, just to see of course ho ho!

Well the forecast looks naff again

Not sure what to go with in terms of clothing - options are:
1) Castelli Gabba convertible - means I don't need a waterproof jacket and can lose the sleeves if it does turn out nice. Temperature forecast is 18C but 'feels like 15' and with several points above 500m I don't think I'll be too hot.
2) Normal jersey + gore-tex active shell jacket - very waterproof, but it's not a very tight fit and flaps a bit so would want to take it on/off, and given it's probably just going to be showers all day I don't think it's worth it

I don't think I'm bothering with overshoes - last time I wore them in heavy rain they still got wet and I just ended up with soggy feet for 6hrs as the water wasn't able to escape. Over the course of 12hrs I think my best bet is just merino wool socks and possibly some toe covers.

 

[lordrobs]

I just realised that I hit 4000 miles so far for the year then compared myself to this guy and all sense of achievement went out the window

http://www.strava.com/athletes/1993015

4000 miles is massive Comparing yourself to randoms on Strava is pointless until they put in filters that allow you to filter out people by the hours they work and other commitments they have

 

[gpuerrilla]

4000 miles is massive Comparing yourself to randoms on Strava is pointless until they put in filters that allow you to filter out people by the hours they work and other commitments they have

True that, I only average a couple of rides a week, if I could get out four or five times things would improve.

 

[Gribs]

After looking out of the window this morning I'm so glad I went for a ride in the sun last night. I certainly wouldn't fancy 100's of km in it.

 

[tl45]

It's shocking when you look at some of the Strava mileages people have put in when I've signed up for challenges I've managed 2400ish this year including hardly any rides in April, over winter a lot more of my riding is on a turbo trainer and I get in the training time but equates to less miles usually.

I sometimes have the time to do more rides per week but my legs usually cry enough - same if I do a lot of riding over a weekend, need more time to recover so it's a hard balance to achieve.

Listening to the thunder this morning I'm with Gribs

 

[gpuerrilla]

After looking out of the window this morning I'm so glad I went for a ride in the sun last night. I certainly wouldn't fancy 100's of km in it.

Yeah a horrible day, was going to travel to a semi-local sportive and do 50 miles but the weather and the £20 for the misery meant hmm don't think so.

It's shocking when you look at some of the Strava mileages people have put in when I've signed up for challenges I've managed 2400ish this year including hardly any rides in April, over winter a lot more of my riding is on a turbo trainer and I get in the training time but equates to less miles usually.

I sometimes have the time to do more rides per week but my legs usually cry enough - same if I do a lot of riding over a weekend, need more time to recover so it's a hard balance to achieve.

Listening to the thunder this morning I'm with Gribs

Some people rack up loads just from commuting. I cycled once/twice a week the other summer to work on a 16 mile each way and the mileage counter started whacking up my mileage for those months.

 

[FrenchTart]

4000 miles is massive Comparing yourself to randoms on Strava is pointless until they put in filters that allow you to filter out people by the hours they work and other commitments they have

Yeah.. I'm pretty happy with my mileage this year (though it means that a lot of my time has been eaten up by cycling). It will start to come down a fair bit once I hit my targets for weight/etc and start focussing on strength training again.

Some people rack up loads just from commuting. I cycled once/twice a week the other summer to work on a 16 mile each way and the mileage counter started whacking up my mileage for those months.

I manage to pack in quite a lot with my commute by extending the routes and cycling at lunch time. In the winter I expect I'll have to do more stuff on rollers or a turbo trainer as I doubt I'll want to be riding much in the evenings if it's dark/wet/icy.

 

[Vonhelmet]

I just realised that I hit 4000 miles so far for the year then compared myself to this guy and all sense of achievement went out the window

http://www.strava.com/athletes/1993015

Whoa. I'm at 1400odd for the year so far and I'm quite pleased given my slow start to the year. I'm ahead of where I was this time last year and should finish way ahead come the end of the year, so that's good enough for me.

 

[Womble]

Well the forecast looks naff again

Not sure what to go with in terms of clothing - options are:
1) Castelli Gabba convertible - means I don't need a waterproof jacket and can lose the sleeves if it does turn out nice. Temperature forecast is 18C but 'feels like 15' and with several points above 500m I don't think I'll be too hot.
2) Normal jersey + gore-tex active shell jacket - very waterproof, but it's not a very tight fit and flaps a bit so would want to take it on/off, and given it's probably just going to be showers all day I don't think it's worth it

I don't think I'm bothering with overshoes - last time I wore them in heavy rain they still got wet and I just ended up with soggy feet for 6hrs as the water wasn't able to escape. Over the course of 12hrs I think my best bet is just merino wool socks and possibly some toe covers.

Where are you seeing this? Accuweather ha perked up a bit from last night

I'm not the best for coming prepared (my first sportive was the Ups and Downs when if p!ssed it down all day - I had nothing but a SS jersey and baselayer. Was fine until you stopped for anything longer then a junction, then you just couldn't warm up)

Going for summer socks ... could pack winter ones I suppose, no overshoes SS jersey and baselayer but with a packable waterproof top. You've ridden this before no? You think short fingered gloves will be OK or should I take some long fingered ones as a backup too

 

[tl45]

If people haven't seen it already, on Veloviewer you can compare mileage done through the year compared to other years, shows it in a nice easy graph

 

[Arsey]

I'm riding in the London nocturne this evening in the Boris bike race! It should be interesting to say the least.

http://www.londonnocturne.com/cyclehirerace.php

 

[Vonhelmet]

Quite a bit of rain oop North, but no thunder as yet, which hey were threatening. Hopefully it'll be decent enough for me to get a short ride in tomorrow morning.

At least I mowed the lawn when it was sunny...

 

[Gribs]

If people haven't seen it already, on Veloviewer you can compare mileage done through the year compared to other years, shows it in a nice easy graph

It's a great feature. I'm already up to the same mileage as I'd done by the 11th November (2.2k km) last year and I think I'm going to have to extend my target of 3.5k km for the year by quite a bit. The relatively warm beginning to the year has helped me a lot as I barely rode until April last year.

 

[oli collett]

It's shocking when you look at some of the Strava mileages people have put in when I've signed up for challenges

I remember last year I was away for a week in Tenerife during a 'climb 5000m in a week' challenge and thought 'well this one is going to be easy'

I racked up over 10,000m, but the top 3 guys racked up around 30,000m. In a week. They were going out doing rides every day racking up 4000-5000m ascent in places like South America.

No matter how crazy you think you are, there's always some people out there going even further!

Where are you seeing this? Accuweather ha perked up a bit from last night

I'm not the best for coming prepared (my first sportive was the Ups and Downs when if p!ssed it down all day - I had nothing but a SS jersey and baselayer. Was fine until you stopped for anything longer then a junction, then you just couldn't warm up)

Going for summer socks ... could pack winter ones I suppose, no overshoes SS jersey and baselayer but with a packable waterproof top. You've ridden this before no? You think short fingered gloves will be OK or should I take some long fingered ones as a backup too

This was on BBC earlier. It seems to be changing about every hour! I think it's just going to be one of those days where you might be very lucky or very unlucky so I think i'll go with the Gabba and at least stay warm!

I rode it last year - gloves are quite an individual thing, lately i've been riding a lot without them. I find the short finger gloves I use tend to start to dig into my fingers after about 150km. I went without them during the Chilterns last week and was fine apart from the build up of sweat on my bars which got a bit annoying. I'll probably wear them and ditch them once they start to cause a problem. Road wise I seem to remember them being pretty good, certainly far better than some of the other sportives i've done - the roads on the chilterns last week were horrendous!

 

[tl45]

I'm riding in the London nocturne this evening in the Boris bike race! It should be interesting to say the least.

http://www.londonnocturne.com/cyclehirerace.php

Wearing full skin suit and TT pointy hat I hope

Had some lively bouts of thunder and lightning here this morning, then Peter Kay rain and now just normal heavy rain....

Tomorrow supposed to be much better, wonder if that includes North Wales?