Clifton CC

Hi there - start of this week

Huge group of 11 riders at the square on Sunday morning.
Not all out all day and with different levels of ability,newcomer Matt and time deadlines saw some quick re-routing before we headed out.
Nick plotted a good route which saw us get a fair amount of climbing in before we arrived at Fleetmoss. Cafe in Hawes at 2 pm and route conference.
Decided to head for Wensley leaving Matt a shorter distance to do by himself to the train at NorthAllerton and to give Arnie some company on the way home as he needed to get back. A pncture and mechanical problems meant that we were stopped for a while -so Arnie headed on back - hope he wasn't to late. We rode home taking the Grewlethorpe/ Fountains route.
It was a good day although we had few mechanicals making it a bit stop start. The headwind out was rather stiff but the tail wind home was very nice.

Helen

Gill & Steph were in MTB action on Saturday doing the 'Hit the North' race in Manchester. A 12 hour Enduro from 10am to 10pm in atrocious conditions they did fantastic at, not only keeping going when many others quit, but coming 2nd in their category. The event was in its first year so organisation left a little to be desired and was apparently reminiscent of Glastonbury; deep mud and nowhere to park or pitch tents.

I had a window of opportunity yesterday morning and, seeing the strange orange thing in the sky, went out to blow some cobwebs off. I met Ian H at Knaresborough and we had sociable meander back before splitting at Aldwarke.

If you want flats go to where the thorns are.
What's what we did on the Saturday ride and it worked.
I thought I'd escaped the curse until I got Wilier ready Sunday morning.
The Continental Panzer armour belt had sneakily failed overnight!
No Vorsprung then, in spite of the Technik.

It seemed like an ordinary, mundane Saturday as 12 set off on the social ride towards the Wolds. However, it was to be far from it...

The weather was the first sign of what was to come. It began cloudy, but the rain started not long into the ride, coming down heavily for a few minutes before stopping again. It was on and off all through the day. So were the wheels.

The ride was still normal for probably half the distance roughly. Then the punctures came:

- 1 (Cath) on the tiny road with the cattle grids and the grass in the middle near Wharram-le-street and North Grimston.

- Turned left, and rode to the B-road. However, the hedge cutters had been out in force, strewing the short climb with hawthorns, being the considerate people they are. 2 punctures (Johnathon and Bernard) were noticed at first, but then another 3 (me, Kevin, then me again), were found after turning off the B-road. Eventually, all the thorns in tyres had been removed.

- By this time, the group had split, as some continued to the cafe to avoid the worsening weather. With new inner tubes in, Kevin, Shaun and I were eventually able to set off to Millington where we hoped to meet the others. With only Thixendale to ride through, we thought we would reach it very soon. But the chalk on the roads claimed my back tyre. Stopped to fix that, and the rain came down again. Able to fit a new tube and in set off again, by which point I had learned why to bring 3 spare tubes instead of just one, as I was riding borrowed tubes.

- Eventually rolled in to the cafe at some time around 3 o'clock, expecting to see the rest of the group already there. But when we got inside, there was only 4. The missing others never turned up. So a group of 7 set off towards home, cancelling plans to add an extension on. Then, to the surprise of all, Alan had a flat tyre! Not a puncture this time though, it was a loose valve.

Managed to uneventfully complete the ride after that. But I'm still not sure what happened to the others...

Arthur M wrote:It seemed like an ordinary, mundane Saturday as 12 set off on the social ride towards the Wolds. However, it was to be far from it...

The weather was the first sign of what was to come. It began cloudy, but the rain started not long into the ride, coming down heavily for a few minutes before stopping again. It was on and off all through the day. So were the wheels.

The ride was still normal for probably half the distance roughly. Then the punctures came:

- 1 (Cath) on the tiny road with the cattle grids and the grass in the middle near Wharram-le-street and North Grimston.

- Turned left, and rode to the B-road. However, the hedge cutters had been out in force, strewing the short climb with hawthorns, being the considerate people they are. 2 punctures (Johnathon and Bernard) were noticed at first, but then another 3 (me, Kevin, then me again), were found after turning off the B-road. Eventually, all the thorns in tyres had been removed.

- By this time, the group had split, as some continued to the cafe to avoid the worsening weather. With new inner tubes in, Kevin, Shaun and I were eventually able to set off to Millington where we hoped to meet the others. With only Thixendale to ride through, we thought we would reach it very soon. But the chalk on the roads claimed my back tyre. Stopped to fix that, and the rain came down again. Able to fit a new tube and in set off again, by which point I had learned why to bring 3 spare tubes instead of just one, as I was riding borrowed tubes.

- Eventually rolled in to the cafe at some time around 3 o'clock, expecting to see the rest of the group already there. But when we got inside, there was only 4. The missing others never turned up. So a group of 7 set off towards home, cancelling plans to add an extension on. Then, to the surprise of all, Alan had a flat tyre! Not a puncture this time though, it was a loose valve.

Managed to uneventfully complete the ride after that. But I'm still not sure what happened to the others...

Hedge Cutting/Puncture problems Read This.

http://www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=4762

As for the other group on saturday we didn't have much luck with punctures either! By the end we had no tubes left and there were 6 of us but i can't remember the names sorry guys! We managed to get caught in rain for most of the ride so was a day to look back and laugh on.

When Cath and I punctured 4 others stayed with us to give a hand which is when we got seperated from Bernard and Willy's group. After that we seemed to have punctures every mile and ended up nowhere near the cafe, already it was past 2pm so we decided to have a stop in Pocklington. From there we took the B road into York to get home past 6 for me not sure about everyone else.

Didn't meet anyone else from the group but heard that they had similar problems to us. I managed to pull a muscle in my leg, first my wrist now my leg i think i've had more injuries from cycling instead of horse riding already! Thank to all the guys with me on saturday, it was an 'interesting' ride!

On Saturday went out with Howards group (minus Howard) with Chris c and James M with a good Kevin route via Bulmer, Coneysthorpe, Amotherby, Pickering, Newton, Cropton to cafe at Hutton le Hole. Chris had a fall coming out of Pickering but was fortunately ok apart from a few scratches.

We had a good ride back via Gillamoor, Fadmoor, Kirkdale, Nunnington, Hovingham, Stearsby, Farlington and back home with 82 miles. Very enjoyable even with the weather being wet.

On Sunday I went with Helens' group to the dales, as Helens' report above. After leaving Grassington my chain broke, fixed that, then later after leaving Hawes made the fatal error of big/big and locked the rear wheel up and damaging rear mech and broken spoke. Anyway quickly repaired that (with the expert help of Nigel) and had a fast ride back, very enjoyable 142 miles.

dave c wrote:On Saturday went out with Howards group (minus Howard) with Chris c and James M with a good Kevin route via Bulmer, Coneysthorpe, Amotherby, Pickering, Newton, Cropton to cafe at Hutton le Hole. Chris had a fall coming out of Pickering but was fortunately ok apart from a few scratches.

We had a good ride back via Gillamoor, Fadmoor, Kirkdale, Nunnington, Hovingham, Stearsby, Farlington and back home with 82 miles. Very enjoyable even with the weather being wet.

On Sunday I went with Helens' group to the dales, as Helens' report above. After leaving Grassington my chain broke, fixed that, then later after leaving Hawes made the fatal error of big/big and locked the rear wheel up and damaging rear mech and broken spoke. Anyway quickly repaired that (with the expert help of Nigel) and had a fast ride back, very enjoyable 142 miles.

Dave,

I think we should have you tested for EPO, 224 miles in 2 days. Pretty good considering you only did the etape a couple of weeks ago. Have you considered joining the pro peleton. Its puts me to shame, it really does. I really should put more miles in.

Jon

Tuna, Chips and Mars Bar at Hawes is what you need, dead on my feet before that.

dave c wrote:Tuna, Chips and Mars Bar at Hawes is what you need, dead on my feet before that.

I was fine up to that long big climb/hill then I started dropping and all that, yet I had plenty to drink at hawes and a burger and chips, now the burger MUST have had some good energy in yet I got nothing after that I was going down hill from there onwards.

willhub wrote: the burger MUST have had some good energy

It has been a long time since I have done anything on nutrition, so I may not be entirely accurate.

Burgers will mostly be protein and fat. Protein and fat are not the best sources of energy and digesting them may take some of the energy you are producing, that is why some people fall asleep after a large meal. You should really stick primarily to carbohydrates with small amounts of protein and avoid fat as much as possible.

Getting your diet right may make as much difference as extra training.

There should be somebody about better qualified than me. I'm doing something wrong at the moment as I tend to get cramp several hours after I stop cycling. Presumably electrolyte drinks will help with that?

Maybe the meal made me start dropping off after then :\, that was my second ride since I started which was a bad one for me, I remember the Ron Kit, that was quite hilly, rosedale chimney, blakey bank, and was 117miles, got home, had shower, felt fine on and after the ride, so much so that I actually could not believe I did it all I just felt so fine but havent had another ride like that since

I think next time I will have egg, beans and toast, does not look as filling but might aswell give it a try see if it benefits me more.

I think I am going to draw the linke at 160miles now, I dont want to do any more than that yet, I think I should focus on managing 120-160 miles and feeling happy after the ride, maybe even starting to do saturday rides and then sunday ride if its like 120 or so miles.

"I think next time I will have egg, beans and toast, does not look as filling but might aswell give it a try see if it benefits me more."

Try jacket potato and beans if you're having a cafe stop?

If I'm going to do a long ride I'll have a ton of pasta (wholemeal) the night before, make sure you drink enough water the day and morning before (make sure youre p..s sorry - urine is clear), couple of eggs, toast, maybe cereal for breakfast (give it an hour before you set off) and get through the day on bananas, nuts, water and energy drinks.

After the ride get a recovery drink inside you straight away.

Michael