Well the stars aligned and I managed to get a pass to head out on sunday to Gospel Pass. You'll be pleased to hear I actually rode it this time!
@Lethal` !
https://www.strava.com/activities/2650268537
I'd planned to ride out on monday but when we'd decided to do something else it was looking unlikely. Then sunday morning things fell into place and by around 10am I'd worked up enough goodwill from little man/other half to get a couple of hours to myself. With temperatures already high I was sceptical about making it up before the afternoon heat kicked in. On the way out to test my legs I actually went up a local climb I've hardly done and certainly not from the side I rode it. Stockley. With just HRM to pace things I'd been keeping everything around Z2/low Z3 but decided I put a
bit of an effort in towards the top. Quite pleased with my time up there (considering I didn't really know the climb) and the top of the climb being sheltered by trees really helped with recovering from the effort without overheating. Span the legs out the 10 miles or so to the bottom of Gospel. I dropped into
Drovers Cycles (literally at the base of the climb) to refill a bottle as had 90% emptied one before then. Was sure I'd drink at least 1 on the climb so preferred to carry more than I needed (I've recently changed to 650ml bottles too, so still getting used to carrying 300ml less fluids as used to use 800ml bottles). Also needed a bit of a tweak of my gears as indexing a bit off after a clean on saturday (which would prove to be a bane!).
The start of Gospel is quite rolling with a couple of ramps and fairly shaded. Got chatting to a guy who caught me there, he was 'on the way home' after 80 miles and I joked he'd turned the wrong way if going over Gospel! He lived in Pandy, right at the base the other side. Good chatting with him, even through these early efforts and we where quite well matched. Passed another guy.
New bike friend pulled over at Tack wood, one of the steepest parts, expected him to catch me later but didn't see him again until I was decending. He must have been cooked! Continued on myself, passing 2 more riders much further up, both on MTB's really struggling. Couple of words of encouragement with no response. Pffft! I recalled the real top of Gospel biting after quite a long stretch of flatter/false flat, around this point my BB started clicking and that continued through the rest of the ride when applying any power. Annoying!
I'd sat the latter steeper parts rather than attacking them, to keep some power in my legs for the end,
I didn't push on these flatter parts to make sure I felt as good as possible for the final ramp. Upon reaching it,
it didn't really bite back at me, being nowhere near as harsh as I remembered (think I only got out the saddle once!?). So crested the top feeling like I could've gone harder. So many cars and walkers around there I went over the top to a second car park/straight road part before pulling over for a breather. On the top, it was windless with the temperature being only slightly cooler than below, with no shade. Took a couple of pictures.
I didn't stop long, enough to eat something before U turning and beginning my descent, passed around 7-8 other riders on the way up including guy I'd been chatting to.
I chased a e-MTB a little on the descent but was careful not to cook my brakes too much as it's a long way down (with several ramps you have to ride hard on the brakes). Pass the e-cheat on one of the little kickers and had to stop a couple of times for cars. Dropped back in to Drovers to re-index before heading home. On the way home the temperature was gradually rising. I choose what I thought was a quicker way home, which involved a further 2 climbs. The first at
Dorstone I knew would be under shade and although short is quite a measured/constant effort so paced it well. Legs felt average but rode it very reserved knowing I'd eaten the last of my food just before so needed to save something to get home.
Upon reaching the last final ramp (not really a climb) at Tin Hill, I'd approached this gradually starting to overheat. Paced the steepest part as best I could but I was really grovelling at that stage.
The flatter, open main roads home from there where into a constant headwind. It felt like a hair dryer at times! Any shelter from it just felt like an oven as there was no shade. It became more of an endurance & will power battle as the heat had beat me into riding as conservative as possible. My legs felt fine, just couldn't get my HR down and temperature down so I was in bits by the time I got home utterly scorched! Sat straight in little mans paddling pool with full kit on for the start of my recovery!
Still glad I've finally crossed it off after 2 aborted attempts this year and missing to ride it last year.
Strangely I was 5 minutes slower on the climb from Drovers than my previous ride in 2017. I must have ridden the bottom very conservatively as
the main 'top 100' climb segment I was 1.5 minutes faster! The fact I've lost fitness since then, while gaining some weight make it really surprising!
Again, it looks like the heat generally suits me, anything around 24-27 degrees I ride well, but once things got over 30 degrees I found myself struggling!
You have R/RS785 calipers then? Those use a longer pad that's the same as all the recent mountain bike calipers.
The newer road calipers use a shorter pad that can look really similar.
Yup R685 levers & 785 calipers here. I hadn't realised they took different pads to the newer road calipers. Sods law & good to know, thanks!
There's definitely a "tax" associated with the strongest name brands.
Definitely - especially when looking at top end like I am/was for S-Works. Take the already overpriced Tarmac bare frame, do it in some different colours, shave off <200g and add £1000 to the price tag.
The cable routing is much less horrible if you go Di2
(probably even better with sram etap..)
The newer models (2019 I think) have integrated bar/stems.
Ahh yes, thinking of the sharp angles of the
2018 Advanced Pro Disc's integration. It looks so tidy in comparison!
He's a skinny ****! I look fat next to him
Haha, I thought it was you! Whoops!
Been looking for the past few weeks at used bikes to buy but not found one that has taken my fancy as yet. Thinking might end up buying new with a slightly lesser groupset. Still got a bit of me wanting to buy a CX bike this time around so it'll get more use throughout the winter periods.. although do have the Brompton for that as well.
Gravel bikes are your friend, basically endurance road bikes with large tyre clearances so good for mudguards, while avoiding a few quirks of a CX bike. I'm using one here, 32mm tyres and full fitted guards. Still have nice clearances!
Wahoo FW update with ant+ radar support added, hooked my Garmin varia up and works a treat!
Dang. That's one thing I've seen and thought was amazing enough to drag me back to Garmin at some point. Now the fact it's on Wahoo means I need to buy a varia!
Is that on the ROAM or the older models? Interested in how it looks on the original ELEMNT. Will do some googling.
