Clifton CC

We have just returned from a weekend camping at Bike Radar Live at Donnington. The start was a bit of a disaster with us only arriving at 9pm and then finding that the car park and where we were camping, was a rather long way apart. It took me until 11pm before I had setup everything (especially blowing up two double and one single air beds by mouth when the air pump gave up on me). Obviously getting young children to bed that late is not ideal.
Next day I got up at 6:30 so that we could get Rachel ready for doing the 100km Sportive. This was supposed to set off at 8am (but didn’t do so until nearly 9am).
Meanwhile the girls and I did the following (Rachel can tell you about the sportive later):

The girls tried out Isla bikes (including a new 24” race bike just off the plane, Isla had just gone to the airport to pick up the 1st one they have had made).
The girls then did some skills training with Cycle active.
They went on bouncy castles and had their face painted (this was all free)
We watched a lot of trick cycling
I then went to the Brompton stand and they suggested I borrow a bike for the folding race at 7pm that night.
We then all had a go on some stationary bikes and got readings for our power. Mine was about avg 600watts for 2mins and just under 900watts peak power.
Supposedly Chris Hoy has a peak power around 2200 and Victoria Pendleton’s is 1400.
We then met Rachel back from the Sportive (100km).

The sportive was gentle compared to C2C and the North York Moors last week. The ride involved rolling hills rather than any steep climbs.

I then went to the Donnington circuit so I could look at the Brompton bikes we would be using. I saw Graham Obree start doing a lap of the circuit, whilst I was there.
That evening I was supposed to be doing the long Dahon (the sponsor) Folding bike race (4 laps). Unfortunately due to a bit of children problems I managed to miss it even though I ran all the way from the campsite. Still they said I could do the one lap race (this was with 20 second to go before the start).
I therefore stood at the start line and ran at the flag (50m) and found a Brompton and unfolded it. After the unfold I was near the back of the field but I managed to get up to 4th place by the first turn 3rd by the second and then 1st by the 4th turn.
By the end I was winning by about 70m. Unfortunately they got me confused with the people riding the long race and I had not done the pre-race briefing. I therefore rode 50m past the point I was supposed to fold the bike up and carry it to the finish line. In the end I ended up 3rd (but 2nd for prizes). So I am supposed to be getting some bespoke cycling clothes from Fisher Outdoors (rather than a Dahon bike for 1st).
After that I went to see some of the 4X racing including Greg Minnaar and Gee Atherton.
Sunday we went on an eight miles Sustrans ranger led ride with the children. Our two older girls (8 and 6) managed to chat the whole eight miles with another girl called Saffron, whom we were camping right next to. After an ice cream break at the end of the eight miles we then all went for a lap of the Donnington circuit (I borrowed the lightest Brompton they make with a single 52 ring to 12 sprocket). Rather tough up the finishing hill into a headwind.
It was a good weekend with the children making 3 new friends, but the camping was not ideal with everything miles away from the campsite (like water and showers) and queue’s for the toilets. Thankfully it did not rain!

Wow, It makes me feel tired just reading about all you managed to cram into your weekend.

Ian H

I heard not many people did that sportive due to the cost? Was it £45? Insane pricing that.


Anyway it's not long untill I'm back in york, although I have to search for a job so if my knee is better lots of miles job hunting possibly.

Did 91 miles today, we went up Holme firth or holmes moss whatever it's called and from there could see drax power station, if it was clearer I'd be able to see home!

We did 91 miles at 16.8mph with over 8000ft of climbing, I think 3 of the climbs brought us up to 500 meters or higher above sea level, we went down snake pass and I was doing all the work, one guy, from some other country he was way out of sight he was so fast, so I was second up snakes pass, all the way up was keeping a steady pace of around 8-9mph I had to think hard to keep it together though as the headwind was tough, I was towing 2 other people behind me and the others where about 3-10 mins behind.

I managed to hit 50mph for the first time, it was awesome, I want to do it again! My CAAD9 really makes rides better too, I lowered the saddle by about 1" and it really made things better I think, awesome smooth ride, I feel fine after the ride, usually would be tired out.

On friday I did 80 miles with around 9000ft of climbing.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/6339270
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/6259155

After a week of arranging and attending my mother's funeral and starting to clear out her flat (do your children a favour - start throwing things out now), I finally managed to ride my bike on real roads rather than the turbo. This morning featured a set of Dangerfield's "intervals from hell" (I posted a link to them yonks ago) followed by a couple of hours happily belting along sun-drenched country roads feeling very, very alive. Isn't cycling wonderful?

Well done for your Donnington efforts, Jeff! To compare those power figures with (old, untalented) mere mortals, my best 2mins is 375W and peak 1000W, so they look pretty respectable! Donnington wouldn't be Donnington without queues for the toilets - happy memories of watching Superbikes there...

You could pay £45 for the sportive and the camping pass but you could easily get it for £25 as we did. So it cost us £50 for the two adults plus we could bring three children free. Not too bad really as camping can cost you a reasonable amount on its own. Also almost everything was free when you got in (except the food).

As it was the first one they were a bit wooly on the organisation in some areas but there was a heck of a lot going on! The main problem was on the organisational side it was difficult knowing what was happening when! There was no timetable of events.

It was a good event because for example I was speaking to the head of Brompton and Isla of Islabikes. You could do the same with the stars (If I could recognise any of them) So you could say what you liked and disliked about the products. One of the things that is good on the Islabike front is they now have more buying power so they can get things made specially for them: Like narrow 24" (1") Kenda Small block 8 tyres etc.

I do know some of the Clifton MTB's were there I assume doing the Enduro that I had booked to do. So hopefully they will do a post. I didn't do it as, I thought I would do the look after the family thing (having done the C2C last week). Also I could not really fit the full suspension MTB on the car. I had Rachel's road bike, Rosemary and Amelia's Islabikes and my Rachel's commuting MTB with seat for Laura. You should have seen our car (a Honda Civic) it was full to bursting!

Having thought about it the second figure of 600w might have been for a shorter time than 2 mins. It funny how you get something in to your head but looking back it didn't feel like 2mins.

I completed the 180km Dales Grimpeur on Saturday, one of the hardest rides that I have ever done, Park Rash is brutal! A big thank you to Helen and Steve (Broomwagon) for guiding me around the course until they turned off to complete the 220km route. You nearly talked me into doing the longer ride but I'm pleased I never as the last few miles into Pateley were a struggle. I made it back to Pateley Bridge just after 6pm after puncturing on the decent into Lofthouse, due to the front wheel rim getting to hot from braking! I did a total of 116 miles and nearly 12500ft of total climbing at an average speed of 13.5 MPH.

A great experience but must make a mental note for next year that a 39 x 25 bottom gear is not suitable!

The MTBers were out in force yesterday making the most of the weather.

We picked a route around the far NW of the Moors mixing up some technical descents into Bransdale and Bilsdale, open Moorland track and difficult stuff through the heather. All dry as a bone.

Great weather, views, company, descents...what more could we ask for?

Another report from the 180 Grimp. Anna's spill was bad enough, but could have been much worse - if you're going to crash way out in the boonies, then at least do it 20metres from a train station and pick the spot where the dry stone wall was a little way up a grass bank.... Thank goodness also that it was warm.

That aside though, what an amazing day? Best cycling weather possible coupled with some of the best cycling roads in Britain. Great to be in a group of 8 all willing to work together and was finally very surprised that we got round in the time limit after a very long delay with the crash.

Dan, I also had a heat induced front wheel blow out, at approaching 40mph, on the outskirts of Lofthouse. The fight to keep the bike upright would have headlined this story on any other day!

Jeff, your Brompton racing exploits only add to the Mrs Armitage image!

Willhub, "I dropped my saddle an inch"!!!! Given all the advise and help you've had over the past year why are you still making such enormous adjustments??? And you wonder why you have sore knees! The simple, old fashioned, heal-on-the-pedal-with-knee-straight approach will get you within a few millimetres - but this comment is for anyone else that's reading Will, given your track record on taking advice.

I dropped it so it my heel was able to touch the pedal....

You do get large anomolies like this in the hot weather. Seatposts do expand quite dramatically, as do cranks, so moving seatposts by and inch or two is perfectly normal in hot conditions.

Tullio - no. I'm with Rob. A small adjustment summer/winter to allow for thicker/thinner clothing but that's it.

Edit - sigh. Sense of humour failure there

Weekend report. I was on my bike for the first time in three weeks. After finally getting vaguely fit again, I got the lurgy from my little one and it's taken me this long to shift it. Hence my no-show at the Grimpeur.

Well, I really enjoyed the Grimpeur (with the obvious exception of poor Anna's crash...). The hills were all new to me, but I was feeling OK on the first few. The drag along to Hawes after the crash was tough - there was a nagging headwind, it was hot, the road was quite busy and of course everybody was feeling subdued after the crash.

I found restarting after the stop at Hawes really hard work, and on Fleet Moss I came close (very close) to climbing off - lunch was lying heavy on my legs. On the drag to Kettlewell the reputation of Park Rash was starting to worry me, but Richard and Alistair did good work on the front and I just focussed on keeping them in sight.

Park Rash was every bit as hard as its reputation made out, but I was spurred on by seeing Rob race past me, and was mighty relieved to make it to the top on wheels rather than on foot.

A great run in to Middleham, and from there Jordan's was a simple case of mind over matter... (for "simple" replace with "painful"!).

What with the 5:45 alarm in the morning and not returning home till 9:30pm, I don't think it would have been possible to have squeezed much more out of a beautiful summer day. Great ride, great company, great day. I'm feeling a little more positive about the Maratona now...

Jason.

"Seatposts do expand quite dramatically, as do cranks..."

There's a bloke who can disguise his irony better than I can... How on earth did you get the saddle an inch high in the first place, Will? You've got the Bikefit measurements to work with....

Rob wrote:Dan, I also had a heat induced front wheel blow out, at approaching 40mph, on the outskirts of Lofthouse. The fight to keep the bike upright would have headlined this story on any other day!

I was "luckily" only doing about 20mph when the puncture hit and the tyre went down fairly slowly so no handling issues, sounds like there were some good bike handling skills on your behalf keeping upright.