Road Cycling Essentials

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Asprilla said:
If anyone is looking for a trainer / crit frame / uber commuter then there is a 56cm 2008 Cervelo Soloist frame going for a bargain on eBay. It's a year newer than mine so it's black rather grey.

It's a classic and better than most carbon frames on the market today.

I'm tempted myself.
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Just seen this after your post. Went for £155. Bargain.
 
touch said:
I went to tenerife in February this year. Weather was great, got up to 37c one day by the coast. Gets colder as you get higher though, i think 13c was the lowest we saw.

We stayed in Oro Blanco apartments in Las Americas, didnt have any trouble keeping our bikes in the apartment. There's not much wind on the south side of the island (shielded by the mountain) and never any rain. Average rainfall for the south of the island is 116mm per year - west scotland has had more than that in the past 2 days alone! It's quite busy around the coast but much quieter when you get up into the hills a bit.

It's very lumpy! There is literally no flat road around. It's great if you're going for training but if you want a touring holiday it'll get boring very quickly. The climbs are huge as well, not too steep but just go on forever. Mt Teide is the highest point in Spain, so when you start at sea level, you can image it's a pretty big climb.

I've been to Mallorca as well, the geography there is much better for cycling (pretty much half flat and half alpine-style climbs) but the weather isnt as good. Been a few times in March/April and it's usually 16-24c at that time of year.
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Doresn't sound ideal coming fresh from a broken leg! Any of the other islands less lumpy?
 
Jimbeam3678 said:
Weather could be a bit dodgy in Majorca in Feb though.

Anyone got any hotel which town suggestions?
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I'd recommend staying up around L'Orotava in Tenerife - beautiful around there, away from the tourist hotspots.

Riding around there is kinda odd - if you're happy to just go up and down Teide every day you'll be happy, there's two ascents you can do from Orotava (or more if you want a really big day) but one problem I found was that if you want to go for something else, you soon get a bit stuck. The road network is setup to take you onto the motorway which you obviously want to avoid. Any roads outside of it go all over the place and my Garmin 810 just ended up confused all the time. You can then end up going up a ridiculous climb to get back to a point, only to find out that a road doesn't actually exist and you have to go and do a 20 mile detour!

I've heard Mallorca is a lot better in terms of the road network and so on but the weather won't be as good during the winter months
 
oli collett said:
I'd recommend staying up around L'Orotava in Tenerife - beautiful around there, away from the tourist hotspots.

Riding around there is kinda odd - if you're happy to just go up and down Teide every day you'll be happy, there's two ascents you can do from Orotava (or more if you want a really big day) but one problem I found was that if you want to go for something else, you soon get a bit stuck. The road network is setup to take you onto the motorway which you obviously want to avoid. Any roads outside of it go all over the place and my Garmin 810 just ended up confused all the time. You can then end up going up a ridiculous climb to get back to a point, only to find out that a road doesn't actually exist and you have to go and do a 20 mile detour!

I've heard Mallorca is a lot better in terms of the road network and so on but the weather won't be as good during the winter months
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Just google mapped that and I can see your point. I'm sure someone on here had done some winter biking somewhere and said it was awesome :confused:
 
There are some absolutely mind-blowing volcanic landforms on Tenerife. Around that time of year you'll be able to ride from the bottom of the island in hot summer conditions, ride up to the top of the mountain and find blizzard conditions up there. It's pretty cool.
 
Finally moved to London last week and managed to get down to Richmond park yesterday, Jesus it was busy, and probably the worst time to go late afternoon but was good fun nonetheless. Despite being held up quite a bit did two 20:40ish minute laps, no idea where that stacks up in terms of speed round there but did enjoy it.
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
Finally moved to London last week and managed to get down to Richmond park yesterday, Jesus it was busy, and probably the worst time to go late afternoon but was good fun nonetheless. Despite being held up quite a bit did two 20:40ish minute laps, no idea where that stacks up in terms of speed round there but did enjoy it.
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A sub 20 lap is apparently a good target, and once you are there aiming for a sub 60 three lap challenge.

It's a useful too if you want to get some miles in before or after work without heading all the way out of the city (Regent's Park is also pretty good).
 
So I had a blast on the turbo yesterday, was hoping to fit it in on Saturday (to get my rest day before today's commute) but as usual ran out of time! :(

Borrowed Sufferfest: A Very Dark Place from a friend... Really need a handlebar mount for my S5 for the cadence readout but was running out of room with my 7" Tab2 on there already! :rolleyes:

My first really big session on the turbo.
My first sufferfest.
The furthest 'distance' I've cycled.
The highest intensity I've done, I certainly don't go that hard on the road! Felt a bit sicky twice and had to ease off :eek:

Work commute this morning wasn't too bad, was dreading it and along with the headwind it wasn't the fastest... But not slow either?! :p

Can recommend this Sufferfest, there is quite a bit of standing (which I don't do much of so not confident doing it - only did 50% of it in the film).
 
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Roady said:
So I had a blast on the turbo yesterday, was hoping to fit it in on Saturday (to get my rest day before today's commute) but as usual ran out of time! :(

Borrowed Sufferfest: A Very Dark Place from a friend... Really need a handlebar mount for my S5 for the cadence readout but was running out of room with my 7" Tab2 on there already! :rolleyes:

My first really big session on the turbo.
My first sufferfest.
The furthest 'distance' I've cycled.
The highest intensity I've done, I certainly don't go that hard on the road! Felt a bit sicky twice and had to ease off :eek:

Work commute this morning wasn't too bad, was dreading it and along with the headwind it wasn't the fastest... But not slow either?! :p

Can recommend this Sufferfest, there is quite a bit of standing (which I don't do much of so not confident doing it - only did 50% of it in the film).
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I never stood through 3 months of Sufferfest traiing but I got massively fitter! AVDP was a favourite, especially the cobbles :)
 
Saytan said:
Seems the program is going to quietly ignore Andy Wilkinson....
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Was a bit naff in the end - they broke nothing, given the solo recumbent record is 750+ miles. I was more disappointed in the lack of any detail - "This is the biggest mental challenge ever" but not discussion of it. No talk of watts generated, or calories consumed barre a short cooking show about quinoa and salmon. Shame, could have been better

Did get me wanting to od a 24 hour tandem ride though - anyone know of such an event?!
 
grudas said:
quite high..

http://www.strava.com/activities/79299721

done a gazillion laps on this before I got pepper sprayed in the face and had to leave.. :o
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20 laps!? And pepper sprayed wtf?! lol :eek:

I sense a great story I've probably missed...? :D

GSVBagpuss said:
Was a bit naff in the end - they broke nothing, given the solo recumbent record is 750+ miles. I was more disappointed in the lack of any detail - "This is the biggest mental challenge ever" but not discussion of it. No talk of watts generated, or calories consumed barre a short cooking show about quinoa and salmon. Shame, could have been better
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It could've, but with many of these things (ie most of the Guy Martin's Speed series) they are dumbed down for the TV audiences - keeps it interesting for those who don't follow cycling and nutrition. I actually enjoyed it, it showed a lot more of the prep work than some of the other shows giving an overall how the training, nutrition, research and equipment came together. Still quite mad they did it on probably the worst day for it this year lol!

The previous 24h tandem record they quoted as 505 miles, so they increased the record to 565!?

I've always enjoyed watching Guy Martin and even more so recently with all of the cycling stuff! He's really bringing some different cycling related things on TV - everything else is racing. Just find him good to watch on TV as he comes across a very genuine guy!
 
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Roady said:
20 laps!? And pepper sprayed wtf?! lol :eek:

I sense a great story I've probably missed...? :D
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yeah! cycling around the park, the usual not really causing any one any harm, this old guy with his massive German shepherd comes over to walk his dog, on the grass and the dog keeps chasing us(me and my brother) as we cycle past, meh, we ignore the dog, it's getting dark etc.. as we approach a corner this guy then stops in the darkest spot and pepper sprays right into our path, I've managed to stop, so did my brother but I did get quite a bit of it in my face! no reason at all bar him shouting "get of the foot path dadada no cyclists etc" while he was standing on bicycle sign at the same path - retard!

he then walked away, got something and came back with one hand in his pocket, clearly carrying something! so we just called it a day and cycled off to finish off the 20mile run! - as you can see by the gps track lol! should have reported him to the police tbh!

#londonlife pfth.
 
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