Road Cycling

Found guy from my local club did it all on Xmas Eve around this way. Absolute loon! This mornings commute in was the worst ride so far with 30mph headwind carrying sleet and rain direct into my face!
 
Think I saw that guy's ride on the Festive 500 challenge page, SoliD. Crazy effort. There's been a few doing it all in one ride... one in Worthing too for charity.

Also an impressive effort in Lanzarote - https://www.strava.com/activities/1326330370

When I looked last night I was 28th for UK but that will slip today as the weather has turned pretty grim and I'm busy during the day today/tomorrow. I've found that exploring a bunch of random new roads has helped the miles tick away.
 
SoliD said:
Found guy from my local club did it all on Xmas Eve around this way. Absolute loon! This mornings commute in was the worst ride so far with 30mph headwind carrying sleet and rain direct into my face!
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https://www.strava.com/activities/1326880497/overview ?

Saw it the other day, what a nutter! Saw he included Southampton's current only true cat4 (Hobbycraft Hill to Roselands), created by your's truly back in the summer (and I think I've found another local one hiding in plain sight, just need to ride it and create the segment).;)

Managed to do ~1700 feet on local hill reps on Xmas Day morning on the fatbike, but yesterday, I was trying to get to grips with my new Elite Direto!

I virtually rode up the Petersfield cat3 (Bell Hill all the way up to the summit on Warren Lane), using the map in the Elite app to create the course... So so different in terms of the gradients compared to real life, a fairly steady 5-6% a lot of the time instead of steep middle section around "Little Switzerland," but it was the difficulty that killed me! ~18min15secs (with dodgy speed data, trying to use my Lezyne Super GPS to record ANT+ Direto with Bluetooth HRM) https://www.strava.com/activities/1327868279 compared to my best time of 14mins30secs for "Bell Hill To The Top" from a whole two attempts (and this one was with a rucksack adding several Kg to my weight) https://www.strava.com/activities/1249390435#30855617097 , yet despite the ~5% gradient I was often having to use my lowest gear of 34-32 (when on the real thing I was typically using ~34-22 and only needing easier gear for the really steep bit).
Think I may have messed up setting the circumference in the app, going to do a 10+ min warmup and then do the short calibration again to see if that changes things in a while.
 
Lethal` said:
Think I saw that guy's ride on the Festive 500 challenge page, SoliD. Crazy effort. There's been a few doing it all in one ride... one in Worthing too for charity.

Also an impressive effort in Lanzarote - https://www.strava.com/activities/1326330370

When I looked last night I was 28th for UK but that will slip today as the weather has turned pretty grim and I'm busy during the day today/tomorrow. I've found that exploring a bunch of random new roads has helped the miles tick away.
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That elevation is insane! :D

Yeah I saw you piling on the miles. I'm not sure what is the biggest problem down here, the wind or the awful road surface on so many roads, went and did Gosport Seafront loops on Christmas/Boxing Day and when I thought there'd be some tailwind it was just blowing me sideways, but the road surface is pretty good! Got 4 miles in to yesterdays ride and got a puncture and was sensible enough to head home to track pump it up and grab another inner tube and didn't get lured into the warmth!
 
I do half wonder if the elevation on that ride is correct. In Gran Canaria there were people riding the same roads as us but with triple the elevation... @Shamrock worked out that if you 'Correct Elevation' on Strava it was resulting in severely inflated elevation.
 
I soon learned that my Lezyne Super GPS elevation data, produced via its barometer, has a tendency to be all over the place. I always use the Strava "correct elevation" option for rides recorded on the Lezyne, sometimes there isn't much in it, other times the Lezyne reads under or over.

Recently, I discovered a thread about the Lezyne, the "trick" is to turn it on outdoors for a good few minutes before heading off (and because of the automatic shut down after ~8mins, even start a recording while it sits outdoors for ~10mins). This then gives it time to calibrate the outdoor temperature and pressure, making the elevation data far more accurate.
 
Same issue with Garmins and anything using barometric pressure really. It's pretty common if the weather changes during my ride or if I switch it off at a cafe stop that I'll come back and my house has sunk as far as Garmin is concerned :D

Weather was really consistent in Gran Canaria though so cycle computer elevation should have been pretty accurate. I guess they must have some underlying data issue with the source they use for elevation correction.
 
Happy belated Christmas guys! Hope you've all had a good one and good luck for those attempting the Festive 500. Ride safe & take care in the crazy weather we've seen. Somehow we've missed the recent snow flurry here in the West Midlands but I guess we had our fair share a few weeks ago!

I've kept the Zwift miles up so although my fitness is dropping I'll still hopefully maintain more over the break than previous years. I'm around 40 miles short of my updated 2017 target of 5000 miles which I should easily complete.
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Robzere31 said:
I can feel my fitness evaporating. :D
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What fitness? ;)

Would be good to join you guys but that date doesn't work - 2 days after the other halfs birthday. I'm just being courteous - as she had to spend the last one sober! Lol ;)

Vonhelmet said:
Any tricks for getting stickers off aluminium rims? My new single speed wheels (v sprint - very nice, but came with no rim tape, which I really don’t get) came with red stickers on which clash with the blue bike. Anything I need to know or is it just a case of careful peeling?
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Maplin do a 'sticky label remover' which is great at removing the kinda sticky resin you'll get left over after peeling. Warm them up, tweezers & hairdrier then remover to get rid of the gunk. The label remover won't work as a 'remover' as the label isn't porous.

Today there's a 20% discount code valid on Ebay (PNY2018) until 6pm up to a total of £75. I'm so so tempted by a Tacx Flux but can't justify without clear funds (waiting for a crypto payout). Grr!
 
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120ish kilometres short of the 500 myself. Doing it with my wife this year and we were meant to finish that off today but we came off on black ice near Irlam. Hell of a lump on my hip and hurts to walk. Wife is bruised but in better shape than me. Hoping by Saturday we’re up to a couple of shorter rides to finish it off. Bleh. :(
 
Certainly very sketchy in places out today. I woke up early to try get some miles in and finish the challenge before a day out. Delayed the ride by an hour so I could at least see with the sun up... Main roads all good but the one lane I kind of have to ride had ice and slush across the road. In hindsight I probably should have turned round and done more local laps but fortunately made it through unscathed.
 
I went out on Boxing Day. The mrs insisted I took my 11 year old daughter, which I thought was a bad idea as it was freezing and raining and horrible. About a mile out, daughter loses it and throws up at the roadside... had to call the wife to fetch her.

I wrestled my daughter’s bike into the back of the car then went off and did ten miles or so on my own, scouting out an off-road route for part of my imminent commute into Manchester.

Hopefully it’ll be warmer at the weekend and I can take her out for a ride without anyone vomiting.

For my part, I need to do another 15 miles to hit 5000 for the year. Should be totally doable.
 
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Stupidly took the Gravdal studded tyres off the other day and this afternoon, decided to visit some cat4 hills in the South Downs on 33mm CX tyres that came with my 2009 Tricross Singlecross, on the fatbike.

The plateau after Old Winchester Hill summit was lethal, ice as far as the eye could see, so nearly had a big off before very cautiously heading back the way I came to the base of Beacon Hill Lane.

Gravdals going back on in the morning, might try heading up that way again, depending on if the usual post-ride zombification subsides.. The extra 900g(?) is a penalty I will happily now take up the hills for staying upright!
 
I've earned my eat the tarmac badge today - fortunately no major damage - chewed skewer and left pedal, scuffed saddle & bar tape and bib tights.

Luckily left lever unharmed, phew!

Actually the bib tights might patch repair, there's just two small holes.
 
Wasn't too bad down on the coast, chilly over the hill but no ice luckily. Enough gravel on the main roads! Suffered my third puncture of the week. Gp4000s are not made for the winter! Too prone to mini cuts!

Only 86km to go for 500. May ride to my uncles in Dorset on Saturday if my hangover from the darts tomorrow isn't too awful and the wind not too horrendous. If not will finish off on Sunday with the club run.
 
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