Road Cycling Essentials
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Soldato
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Seems we will be riding together.
Name: Liam Reilly
Start Area: Black
Wave:A
Wave Load opening time: 05:42
Wave Load closing time:06:12
Start Time:06:42
Brilliant, what time are you aiming for?
There is another Bliss rider (the girl I think Calpol knows, or at least someone recognised her from my Laura Trott picture) and a guy I know from BR leaving 3 mins after us and we are all heading for 4.45 -5.15 depending on conditions.
Fancy forming a train, if we can?
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[DOD]Asprilla;26529071 said:
Sounds good. How big are the waves I wonder? Small enough to spot each other?
Around the 5h mark would be my target I guess. I don't intend to stop at all except for pee breaks and will bring all the food and drink I need.
Soldato
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Waves will be pretty big, and they will be coming thick and fast but the timing start mat isn't until 2 miles after the actual start so you can wait and meet up.
It was easy last year, but there were only two start points an 14,000 riders. This year there are 5 start points and 18,000 riders. It was also pretty easy to find other folks in the load queue as they make you wait in pens and the follow a switch back queue.
I'll be wearing the same turquoise Bliss jersey I wore in the Laura Trott photo.
It was easy last year, but there were only two start points an 14,000 riders. This year there are 5 start points and 18,000 riders. It was also pretty easy to find other folks in the load queue as they make you wait in pens and the follow a switch back queue.
I'll be wearing the same turquoise Bliss jersey I wore in the Laura Trott photo.
Man of Honour
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So my Pavé Battle of June challenge ended with 47h 39m. Obviously I'm tempted to go out and do 21 minutes to complete it but I need to get rest for tomorrow and I'm ill already so.. blah. Also, I think it's probably good to resist OCD urges to complete stuff like that 
I got out and did 33 miles this evening. The main goal was to tackle this climb which is a short but fairly steep climb out of a valley that the canal runs through. The road sign warns you of it hitting 20%, but I don't know that it gets that steep, and strava doesn't even categorise it as a cat 4. The climb was pretty good, as it goes, though with the wet ground I was slipping about a bit. Once that was done, I was onto roads I'd not been on before, and I hit a diversion and got a bit lost for a while. When I got back to familiar territory, I decided to hit a road that ridewithgps always wants to send me on when I'm planning routes around there, but which I always miss because I turn early on autopilot down a different road and go back that way. After a few false starts looking for the turning, I found the road I was looking for, and fairly soon wished I hadn't. It started out as a roughly paved road and rapidly turned into an unpaved mess with pebbles, puddles, mud and allsorts all over the show. Before too long I was riding on a dirt track through some farmer's fields. It got a bit sketchy on my 23mm tyres. I made it, covering 1.8 flat miles at a whopping 11.8mph. There's a grand total of 14 people on the strava leaderboard for that segment and I'm not surprised! The Google Street View car didn't make it down there either.
I got home and found that my bike was absolutely filthy, and the back of my favourite white jersey is covered in mud. The former will be getting a wash tomorrow, the latter is already in the washing machine as I type!
So, quite a baptism of fire for my new Charge Scoop saddle, which performed very well. It was comfortable to sit on and felt OK over the bumps, which I'm glad of considering the stretch I ended up on, as described above. It's also a good job I was using that saddle rather than the old one, as the Scoop has a very smooth base and the cover is bonded on in some weird way, rather than stapled or whatever, so will be much easier to clean! Obviously 33 miles isn't the longest test of a saddle, so I'll be interested to see how it fares next week riding to Yorkshire and back for Le Tour, which is 35 miles each way, and the following week riding 50 miles to my parents.
I got home and found that my bike was absolutely filthy, and the back of my favourite white jersey is covered in mud. The former will be getting a wash tomorrow, the latter is already in the washing machine as I type!
So, quite a baptism of fire for my new Charge Scoop saddle, which performed very well. It was comfortable to sit on and felt OK over the bumps, which I'm glad of considering the stretch I ended up on, as described above. It's also a good job I was using that saddle rather than the old one, as the Scoop has a very smooth base and the cover is bonded on in some weird way, rather than stapled or whatever, so will be much easier to clean! Obviously 33 miles isn't the longest test of a saddle, so I'll be interested to see how it fares next week riding to Yorkshire and back for Le Tour, which is 35 miles each way, and the following week riding 50 miles to my parents.
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Associate
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Found a picture of me on L2B, thanks to strava so I knew which minute I passed the photographer I remembered seeing 
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I had a similar experience with a Sustrans route. It said it was unpaved but I thought, meh I'm on a hybrid and if it is a cycle route how bad could it be, the answer... very bad. It hadn't helped that within 5 minutes of setting off the heavens opened. I honestly wouldn't even have walked the tracks I ended up on with wet grass up to my knees, slick mud climbs and muddy puddles the worst of which came up over the bottom bracket
Never again. I cut my losses at the half way point and just picked random roads until I found myself somewhere I recognised. In fact my trainers were so destroyed they ended up in the bin.
Oh, good to hear the saddle is doing the job. After having a good look at my saddle to work out why it gives me grief I've decided to order a charge spoon.
I had a similar experience with a Sustrans route. It said it was unpaved but I thought, meh I'm on a hybrid and if it is a cycle route how bad could it be, the answer... very bad. It hadn't helped that within 5 minutes of setting off the heavens opened. I honestly wouldn't even have walked the tracks I ended up on with wet grass up to my knees, slick mud climbs and muddy puddles the worst of which came up over the bottom bracket
I've done this except by that point I was already too committed and ended up shouldering my bike and walking 2.5 miles through marshland, several stiles, a couple of bushes and finally through a small water crossing before finally getting back to a road
Contadors lieutenant Kreuziger ruled out the TDF for possible doping 3 years ago.
He'll still have Michael Rogers but it's a definite big loss.
Seems silly that he's being punished for something which occurred so long ago to me when he rode for another team, it kinda screws Tinkoff Saxo over when they assumingly did everything they could to make sure he was clean.
There should be a punishment but not allowing people to race if they are now or have always raced clean is silly. A financial penalty with a ban if proven guilty would be better IMO.
He'll still have Michael Rogers but it's a definite big loss.
Seems silly that he's being punished for something which occurred so long ago to me when he rode for another team, it kinda screws Tinkoff Saxo over when they assumingly did everything they could to make sure he was clean.
There should be a punishment but not allowing people to race if they are now or have always raced clean is silly. A financial penalty with a ban if proven guilty would be better IMO.
3 years ago isn't that long. It sucks for Saxo but if the punishments are harsh like this which they need to be it paves the way for a cleaner sport in the future imo. It forces Teams to be a lot more diligent.
The mud isn't coming out I've done this except by that point I was already too committed and ended up shouldering my bike and walking 2.5 miles through marshland, several stiles, a couple of bushes and finally through a small water crossing before finally getting back to a road
Trying to figure out how a friend done in the womens elite/u23 race. Will be keeping an eye on results!
Can't believe Trott won, didn't seem to have much recently on the others around here on the road, seemed the team done a great job!
Soldato
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Picked up an Aldi bike stand for £30 quid today and they are pretty good! Didn't stop long enough to check anything else out. But the stand is certainly worth it. Hurry though, they don't usually stock more than they put out on the first day and can be quite popular.
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We picked up my mrs' shopper bike from Halfords yesterday. She wants a basket for it, so I think a trip to aldi is in store for us!
Soldato
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- Surrey, by the river
66.8kg.
Punching a very small hole in the air.
Punching a very small hole in the air.
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