Some Days are Special..

Some days are special....yesterday was one of those days.....

Just before the weekend I had a message from Jon Joynes (one of the 10in10 riders) asking me if I would like to pop over to Somerset one day this week for a cycle ride around the area near his home town of Yeovil.
A quick glance at the weather forecast showed me that the only day worth considering looked to be the Tuesday..yesterday... all the other days of the week had predictions of precipitation over the 40% chance...
As one of my many motto's goes along the line of 'why cycle in the wet if you can ride in the dry?' our choice of day for our ride was made...as it was Jon had the whole week free of work so was as flexible as I was in choosing the driest day...and didn't we make the right choice..!!

Blue sky and strong shadows...a stunning day for a Somerset ride.

I got up yesterday morning and was greeted by bright sunshine so all bode well for a good day's riding... First though I had to drive over to Somerset..one of the four counties that is adjacent to Dorset the others being Hampshire Devon and Wiltshire. 

As I set off from home the weather was gorgeous however the moment I turned off the coast road to head inland I found myself engulfed in fog...and that was the way it stayed all the way to Yeovil.
As I arrived at Yeovil the sun seemed to break through and all looked good again.

A pretty Somerset scene on our ride..

At Jon's house I got myself sorted out..removed my bike from the back of my personal Tonka toy (4x4) and we set off...
I have cycled through parts of Somerset in the past but not much in this particular area so it was nice to have a cycling buddy show me one of his regular routes....

As we rode along we both remarked on what a truly stunning day it was... It was one of those Autumnal days that are really special where everything seems to have come together to create a  perfect day.....

Nice weather and not much traffic...perfect!

We headed north of Yeovil on a truly lovely cycling loop...there was not a great deal of traffic even on the few sections of main road that we rode on ...most of the route though seemed to use the country lanes that Somerset has an abundance of making for a very nice relaxed ride..

One of the villages that we went through was Kingsbury Episcopi...over twenty years ago some friends of mine lived in Church cottage there and cycling through the village brought back lots of happy memories of my visits and time spent there all those years ago.....

Jon's Dad with the Mercian...A great winter project..

Jon had organised our coffee and cake stop at his parents house...
It was really nice to meet Jon's parents who had organised both chocolate cake and  jam doughnuts..my two favourites....
We all sat outside chatting and enjoying the warm autumn sunshine and talking about everything under the sun including caravans..classic cars and of course bikes.

Jon's Dad showed me an old Mercian bike that he has.... it would make a first class winter restoration project... 
Although it has surface rust to the frame the bike looks solid and intact and it would be wonderful to see it fully restored... 

The problem is though, that his Dad has a number of other objects of  desire that are good restoration projects.  Like most restorers it is hard deciding which project to start on next... Caravan...Car..Bike..??

Surface rust only on the Mercian

All too soon it was time to head off and continue with our bike ride.....

As we headed back towards Yeovil we were able to reflect on what a perfect day's ride we had enjoyed...how lucky we had been with the weather....how enjoyable the route had been....how good it was to get out on the bikes and ride with a friend....

Before I knew it, the ride was over and I was loading the bike into the vehicle and then heading back home to Dorset....

One last view of the old Mercian

Today when I woke up I was greeted by rain lashing down and strong winds and it looks as if those forecast predictions of rain were absolutely spot on....

As I said at the beginning of this blog post...
Some days are special.....yesterday was one of those days....

Berghaus - Forty Marathons in Forty Days...

THE ULTIMATE TRAIL INFOGRAPHIC..

I've always been up for a bit of a challenge as regular visitors to this blog will be well aware, but here is one that I personally won't be attempting....

1000 miles is an impressive distance to run by any stretch of the imagination...
To do it in 40 days across the high route of the Great Himalaya Trail is an incredible achievement...  but that is exactly what Berghaus athlete Phillipe Gatta  is attempting to do, setting the fastest known time for the route.

Here are some of the stats from Phillipe's expedition in an Infographic to help give it a sense of scale........

Il Lombardia....'The race of the falling leaves'.

Fallen leaves on one of my own cycling routes...

Yesterday was the Il Lombardia...which is one of my favourite one day classic races...In fact the race and everything connected with it was the inspiration for the 10 in 10 ride that I did way back in June this year.....
The Lombardia is known as the 'Race of the Falling Leaves' due to the time of year that it is held....

The top four places in this years race were:-
 1st Joaquin RODRIGUEZ  (Esp)     Team.. KAT
 2nd Alejandro VALVERDE (Esp)    Team..MOV
 3rd  Rafal MAJKA  (Pol)                  Team..TST
 4th Dan MARTIN  (Irl)                    Team..GRS

While trawling the net sometime ago I found a very interesting series on 'Roads to Ride' over at 'The Inner Ring'  blog website.....
It is a series about riding the famous roads/hills in cycling.....it looks at the routes....history..including race history, as well as what it feels like to ride. It also looks at travel and access to the road/climb and finishes with a brief summary....

Well worth checking out in my opinion...

The first in the series was Alpe d'Huez and the second was The Ghisallo the signature ride of the Il Lombardia...
 If you've not seen it go and take a look by clicking on this BUTTON 

At the end of the piece on the Ghisallo there is a list of links to the other iconic 'Roads to Ride' in the series..
The Inner Ring really is a blog worth following.....

Riding into Autumn.....

For me...this time of the year is one of the best for getting out on the bike for a ride.
Most of the visitors to the area have now gone home and the roads have become a lot quieter and more bike friendly. It's also a lot cooler now making the temperature better suited for cycling...

I started the week with a 38 mile spin on Monday morning on my own followed by an afternoon of bike cleaning... I get a lot of pleasure in making sure that my bikes are always cleaned and prepared before every ride and if done regularly it never needs to be a major operation....

The Felt cleaned and prepped ready for Tuesdays ride.

 I had made arrangements to meet up with Si Chapman and Jon Joynes on Tuesday for an afternoon spin... It had been a good few weeks since I had ridden with either of these guys. It was a couple of weeks after the end of the 10in10 ride that I last rode out with Si and it was in Italy during the 10in10 itself that Jon and I had been riding together.....

The Bikes taking a coffee break...

 I was really looking forward to meeting up with these fellas..... It's always great to meet up with mates for a ride and at this time of year I find the rides more enjoyable than ever....on top of that Si lives in a village in North Dorset surrounded by some great cycling country, although for this ride we had all agreed it was going to be a nice steady and flattish ride.....

Si and Jon taking a coffee break....

 Si had a bit of a cold and as none of us has been doing big distance rides lately an easier ride with a coffee and cake stop seemed appropriate... Anyway as Jon proved during our 10in10 ride back in June, his cycling ability depends very much on having sufficient cake intake so a cake stop was an absolute must.....
A ride with friends is always enjoyable with no pressure to reach targets or goals.... Si had come up with a really enjoyable route meandering as it did around the Dorset countryside. With only 1755 feet of ascent shown on the Garmin at the end of the 30 odd miles we completed, it was pretty flat (for Dorset) as well... It was an afternoon well spent and I look forward to my next opportunity to ride with these guys again......

Gareth Morns...Literally our first ride together in years....

Wednesday morning found me out on the bike again.....this time I was meeting up with Gareth Morns at the Sandbanks chain ferry for a ride over the Purbecks...

Now Gareth and I have not been out for a bike ride together for years.....and I really do mean years.....
Gareth was one of our 'Rev Pro Team'  who rode with me on the LEJOG ride we did to raise money for the Dorset Kidney Fund back in 2008....We are both pretty certain that was the last time that we actually cycled together...the years really do seem to fly by....!!
Gareth was responsible back then for getting me interested in cycling again after I'd had a break of about twenty years, so he has a lot to answer for..!!
Unfortunately with work commitments and a young family, it is not so easy these days for Gareth to fit the cycling in around a busy life but I hope that it won't be so long before our next ride together...
Gareth is a very capable cyclist and it was a pleasure to ride with him again this week......

So there we have it....riding into autumn and catching up with cycling friends.... there is not much better way to spend your time..........

Back to normal........

Well now that we are well and truly into September things are getting back to normal here at Purple Towers....
As I have mentioned before on this blog..the summer months are not really my favourite time of year, mainly because of how busy it seems to get on the local roads with the influx of visitors to the area. 

Looking back on the year, the winter seemed to hang on for ever...however we were lucky when we had our training camp back in early May. 
The weather up till then had been very cold, but for that week the temperature shot up and we had nice sunny days for our rides.. 
Following that week the weather went back to being cold again...indeed I remember the day we set off on the #10in10 ride it was bitterly cold and the ride through the Netherlands the next day wasn't much better either. 
Since then the summer weather finally arrived and we have had some absolutely stunning weather down here on the Dorset coast. 
Just checkout this picture taken from the end of our road only nine days ago........

Bournemouth beach close to Alum Chine

A beautiful sunny day and a busy beach.....Just a few days later and most of the visitors had gone, the children had gone back to school and the weather had taken on a really autumnal feel.

As I look out of my window as I type this I can see a very grey looking sea and it has started to rain. It is almost as if when August was finished and September started, a switch was thrown and nature just changed gear.....

Talking about changing gear....that is what I have done.
I have been getting back to more riding again.....

Throughout August I started back with regular use of the static bike.....I found that this bit of equipment had been a real boon for my training earlier in the year when the weather wasn't good and I was well pleased with the results that I got by using it for my preparation for the #10in10 ride.
It enabled me to focus my training on various aspects of my cycling in a way that 'going out for a ride' doesn't really allow you to do. I certainly intend to continue to factor it in to my training  programme over the coming winter.

Unfortunately at the end of August I was using the static bike and had programmed it for a very 'hilly' route. As the resistance increased as it racked up the gradient, there was a 'bang' and all the resistance disappeared. 
After investigation I found that the cable that runs from a servo motor to the resistance magnet had snapped...... I contacted the suppliers and I must say that they were first class.....within a few days the cable had been replaced and I was back training again... The suppliers told me that they had not had that happen before, so hopefully it's something that I won't experience again.

Since then I have also managed to get out on the Tifosi and the Felt as well, so hopefully everything will now get back to normal.
I hope to see some of you out on the roads around the Purbecks over the coming months......

After the 10in10....What next?

It's been about nine weeks since we completed the Ten in Ten ride....
On my return from Italy I didn't ride my bike for a couple of weeks and then I did one 50 mile ride with some friends and since then I have not ridden any of my bikes at all....

The main reasons for this are that I wanted a complete break from the bike, plus I also find that I don't get as much pleasure riding my local roads during July and August as they seem to get pretty busy with all the holidaymakers that flood into the area........ one of the drawbacks of living at a tourist spot......

Mind you at the beginning of August I did start to use my static training bike again so that I can  maintain my fitness at a reasonable level for when I start getting out on my bikes riding the Purbecks in September.....

A few last little notes regarding the Ten in Ten for those of you who might be interested....

Three of us were using Continental Gatorskin tyres....In fact the ones that I used had well over 1500 miles on them before I even started the challenge. None of us had a puncture!! Considering some of the rough sections of road we travelled  (particularly in Belgium) I think that we did pretty well...

No major mechanicals were suffered either apart from a saddle height adjustment by Lorenzo.....
A dropped chain at the lower slopes of the Splugen pass for Jon...and JD suffered a bent derailleur hanger that happened when he had his accident.
A bike shop near our campsite in Italy sorted it for him in an hour so that he could give the Ghisallo climb a go.....
All in all an uneventful ride on the mechanical side....

So......What next?
Well to be honest I have nothing in the pipeline at the moment. 
I had planned on riding the Lon Las Cymru across Wales in September with Peter Calcutt from the Backpackers club, but unfortunately he has had to pull out due to work commitments...great pity, as it is the second time that the trip has had to be postponed.  

For now I  am looking for a cycle tour or challenge ride for next year and any suggestions will be considered...... 
In the meantime as a little bit of motivation I have my 10in10 photos to keep me going as well as the Ghisallo medallions which I picked up in Italy and I have shown below...... 

Medallion from the Museo del Ciclismo

Medallion of the Santuario Madonna del Ghisallo (Rear)

Medallion of the Santuario Madonna del Ghisallo (Front)

#10in10 Storia del Santuario del Ghisallo.

At the end of my last blog post I said that I would give you some background history of the Santuario del Ghisallo........

The sanctuary of Ghisallo is a little church at Magreglio, which is 754m above sea level on the Vallassina road, which goes from Milan to Bellagio via Erba between the two branches of Lake Como. This blessed Virgin Mary is the Patron Saint of Cyclists.

The little church has no written history but according to tradition the Virgin Mary venerated on  the steep hill which it is named after and is probably of the type that the villagers used to put by the roadside to protect the villages and their religous heritage.

The holy image was set up in the woods of this area which at the time were full of brigands, who used to seek refuge here and enjoy the right of asylum.

Around the XI century it is said that in the area of Magreglio some brigands threatened to kill a certain Count of Ghisallo while he was out hunting. He prayed to the Madonna he had come across on the spot and the Virgin saved him. This is the reason why the image of the Madonna got the name of "Ghisallo" and she was soon venerated under this title.

A little church was built around the original shrine, followed after a while in 1623, by the little sanctuary which is a popular spot for visitors. 

Due to the geographical position of the Sanctuary, it has become a landmark for cycling competitions including the Tour of Lombardy in October. So the little church has become the symbol of the spiritual elevations of this sport.

On 13th October 1949 Pope Pius X11 appointed the Madonna of Ghisallo Patron Saint of Italian Cyclists.
As a result that image was and still is venerated by international cycling as it's Patron Saint and the place has become the focus of many pilgrimages and races.

In the little church there are gifts and trophies from the cycling world which cyclists have presented as a mark of their devotion to their Patron Saint from 1948 until the present day.
The 'Monument to the Cyclist' and busts of famous cycling personalities adorn the adjacent area.

Next to the Sanctuary was built the 'Museum of Cycling Madonna of Ghisallo'.
On May 31st 2006 Pope Benedict XV1 blessed the final stone of the building in the vatican, thereby solemnising the completion of the museum. This stone can be seen in the central room of the museum building and bears the inscription 'Omnia Vincit Amor' (love conquers all).
I have included below a few of the photos I took of some of the exhibits................