My Ride on sunday went well. My friend (training for RidePrudential) wanted to do 60+ miles, I wanted to do around 40 with some climbing. The original route I'd planned around visiting a pub another friend worked at, trying a climb and checking out the roads that direction (lots of routes/climbs around there) and the distance (to 'push' my leisure rides up to 40 miles with 1500+ ft of climbing). To cover the climbing, my mileage and my friends I came up with a solution. I still used the circular type route I'd originally planned but then rather than a loop I extended it out to my parents house where I would get picked up from and my friend could ride home.
The route worked well and the weather was fantastic! The original climbs I'd plotted were brutal but good fun and the descent was fantastic on a great road surface! Will have to check that out again! The main road part of our route (Eardisley to Kington) had a long 2.5 mile CAT3 climb which was also good. It hurt and seemed to go on forever!
But with the climb not getting much steeper than 5% (and being fairly constant) it made pacing it easier. The descent was fun but road surfaces were not great... Easier roll out over the border followed by a couple of climbs.
Then came the real tester right at the 'end' (of my ride, not my friends!) to my parents place. Beggars Bush. It was used as a KOM stage in the 2014 ToB so the leaderboard is quite an interesting one to look at. Admittedly we did the climb from a different side - it still totally ruined us but I buried myself on it knowing I was at the end of my ride!
All in all an excellent day, I've wanted to 'cycle to Kington' for a while (where I used to live). Now I've cycled a long route there (for me), a CAT3 and even to my parents place (which was probably my next target) I'm quite chuffed with myself. Still didn't go over my '100 miles in 1 week' soft target (88.8) though!
Gutted for you mate, but there'll always be other races!
Looks awesome, very 'sleeper' look as you can tell (from those in the know) from the tube profiles it's not just an old banger painted up!
I found the PX ones quite a poor fit - tight around the back so the velcro was making a noise every pedal stroke, the top wasn't very flush with my leg (slight gap for water) and the rear of the overshoe rides up the back of my shoe (so if your shoes have heel vents you'll get wet).
The DHB version (similar price) I found a better fit, zip at the rear means they really don't move around as much. Tighter to get on, but feel more robust. The bottoms and edges wear away but even after shedding much of the stitching and bottom elastic mine are going strong.
The route worked well and the weather was fantastic! The original climbs I'd plotted were brutal but good fun and the descent was fantastic on a great road surface! Will have to check that out again! The main road part of our route (Eardisley to Kington) had a long 2.5 mile CAT3 climb which was also good. It hurt and seemed to go on forever!
But with the climb not getting much steeper than 5% (and being fairly constant) it made pacing it easier. The descent was fun but road surfaces were not great... Easier roll out over the border followed by a couple of climbs.Then came the real tester right at the 'end' (of my ride, not my friends!) to my parents place. Beggars Bush. It was used as a KOM stage in the 2014 ToB so the leaderboard is quite an interesting one to look at. Admittedly we did the climb from a different side - it still totally ruined us but I buried myself on it knowing I was at the end of my ride!
All in all an excellent day, I've wanted to 'cycle to Kington' for a while (where I used to live). Now I've cycled a long route there (for me), a CAT3 and even to my parents place (which was probably my next target) I'm quite chuffed with myself. Still didn't go over my '100 miles in 1 week' soft target (88.8) though!
Gutted for you mate, but there'll always be other races!
Looks awesome, very 'sleeper' look as you can tell (from those in the know) from the tube profiles it's not just an old banger painted up!
I found the PX ones quite a poor fit - tight around the back so the velcro was making a noise every pedal stroke, the top wasn't very flush with my leg (slight gap for water) and the rear of the overshoe rides up the back of my shoe (so if your shoes have heel vents you'll get wet).
The DHB version (similar price) I found a better fit, zip at the rear means they really don't move around as much. Tighter to get on, but feel more robust. The bottoms and edges wear away but even after shedding much of the stitching and bottom elastic mine are going strong.
