WORLD CYCLE RACING - GRAND TOUR STARTED

The World Cycle Racing - Grand Tour has now started. 
The riders set off yesterday morning from Greenwich Park in London and each rider immediately got into their  chosen route. 


There have been a variety of approaches to this race in terms of styles..bikes and equipment. Touring bike, Hybrid or Sports bike...they were all there at the start. 
Some of the riders are carrying a full touring set of kit others are travelling very obviously as light as they can. 
It will certainly be interesting to see how this race pans out over the forthcoming weeks....


I will be riding in France and then riding Edinburgh to Portsmouth during April and May and the WCR Grand Tour will still be going on ! Puts the whole thing into perspective I think.


 Don't forget, you can follow all the riders progress by going to the WCR Grand Tour web page....I have a link at the bottom of my links column in the side bar of this blog......


Also in London....


Also in London this weekend we have had the Track Cycling World Cup Classics staged at the new Olympic Velodrome. 


I would have loved to have been able to attend this event but unfortunately was unable to do so. 
I  have had to settle for watching this on television and gripping stuff it's been too.
The best track riders in the world were there and it's good to see where the various riders and teams are at this point in the run up to the Olympics later in the year......


The velodrome itself looks absolutely fantastic....Pity I didn't get any tickets for the Olympic Track Cycling at this super new venue. Like lot's of fans I applied for tickets and again like lots of fans I didn't get one, so it looks like I will be watching that at home too.....


............and my riding....


My own riding has still been going well. 
Since the beginning of the year I have managed to ride an average of 240 miles a week. This is usually made up of four days of 60 miles give or take a bit. 


I have decided that I will ease back a few miles on my weekly mileage as I don't want to overcook things too early in the year. If I was to manage somewhere in the region of an average of 180 miles a week for the rest of the year I would still hit my 10,000 miles target. 


The planned Edinburgh to Portsmouth ride will give me about 550 miles in that week alone and the couple of weeks easy touring in France should give me 700+  so at the moment the pressure has eased a little. 
I am riding well but I feel that there is lots of room for improvement and I will continue to work on that. Hills, both ascending and descending, is an area of my riding that I am  working hard at. Starting next month I should get back on a regular weekly ride with JD and that is always good for a laugh but I don't know how much serious riding we will get done.........  

NAKED.......

FIONA'S NAKED BOTTOM BRACKET

At this time of year I don't ride my carbon bike Fiona (The Felt). I tend to reserve this bike for the period from late spring through to early autumn......days when the chances of  rain..... mud..... salt.... grit..etc are low. 
It's my best bike and  I spent a lot when I bought it so I can't see myself spending that much again on a bike....particularly now I  am retired. I like to keep it in pristine condition and that gives me almost as much pleasure as the hours I do spend riding it during the summer months..... 


Most of the winter miles I ride tend to be spread between the Tifosi and the Revolution...... although for most daily riding the Tifosi is my bike of choice.......The mudguards (fenders) mean that I can ride the bike year round and I don't have to spend hours cleaning the bike after each ride. 


I have never really understood why a lot of riders are happy to ride a bike without mudguards throughout the winter. Muck sprays up everywhere...all over the bike and all over the rider. 
As I ride on the road only- I find that a lot of grease and oil is picked up off the road and trying to remove the marks that are left down the back of expensive cycling jerseys and other cycling kit can be a difficult task no matter what 'magic cleaner' you choose to use. 


Obviously there are no mudguards on the Felt....and if it happens to rain during a sportive or some other time that I am riding the bike, then that's the way it is and I have to put up with it. I think that I would be spending hours cleaning the bike let alone cycle clothing if I rode it throughout the winter period as well. 
No, for me Fiona is a special bike reserved for special days and special events........ 


I have posted a picture of Fiona's naked carbon bottom bracket area above.....
I would not normally display a picture of Fiona's more intimate areas but this shot is for Jeff over at http://theflattire.blogspot.com/
He is looking to buy a new frame....he has talked about the possibility of buying a carbon frame but he's not been giving too much away on his final choice of  material or anything else come to that. So I thought that I would give him a bit of excitement and a little reminder of the beauty of naked carbon. 


Naked carbon bike porn....don't you just love it..?

A BUSY WEEK......

VIEW OVER POOLE HARBOUR

This past week has been a busy week...... 
Although the weather has been very cold for most of the time I have still managed to put in more miles and I have also felt pretty good doing it. 
All of my riding has been solo...the last time I rode with anyone else, was a few weeks ago when I did the short 30 mile loop with my son-in-law Scott. 


One of the positives of riding solo of course is that the pace you ride is your pace. 
No sprinting for that road sign because everyone else is....and no riding faster or slower than your fitness or training schedule dictates... 


I have been able to stick very closely to my training programme and I am sure that it is paying dividends.  I think that my level of cycling is in a good place right now and I am able to see some improvements in a number of areas...
Let's hope that I can continue to build on this throughout the rest of the winter........ 


On Thursday night I went to the monthly 'Gear & Beer' night of the Dorset Group of the Backpackers Club. 
The idea is that we spend half an hour or so in the Bournemouth Cotswold Outdoor Store drooling over some of the latest outdoor kit before settling into a nearby pub for a pint or two of some amber nectar and a good old jaw bashing, supposedly planning future backpacking trips and putting the world to rights....and we certainly did that. 
If you notice some improvements in your world anytime soon it's sure to be due to all the discussions we had about the state of the world....

DAVE (THE BROOM WAGON) VAUGHAN ON THE FERRY TO SPAIN FOR ROCK2UK

A good part of my week has been spent on planning future trips and events.....
I don't know how I managed to do anything when I was working, because there never seems to be enough time to do everything I want to these days (Oh, the problems of retirement)....trying to fit it all into the year planner has been proving to be a real problem. 


One spot of good news concerns the Edinburgh to Portsmouth ride that JD conned talked me into doing. 
Dave (The Broom Wagon) Vaughan has agreed to support us for the entire event. 
This means that there is no requirement for us to do this ride on the touring bikes. 
With Dave giving us vehicle back up we will not need to carry tents and other gear and we will be able to ride on lighter bikes. 
JD intends riding his Specialized  Secteur Comp and my plan is to use the Tifosi Audax Classic. 


Now you might think that Dave is looking pretty glum in the photo above that was taken on route to Santander, but I can assure you that there are occasions that he manages to break into a smile....
Like on the ROCK2UK  ride back from Gibraltar last September.... 
Due to work commitments he could only support us for the first few days but he was laughing his head off as he climbed back into the vehicle when he left us in the middle of nowhere in Spain........ 


Truth is that it is great news that he will be supporting us on this latest mini adventure and I am sure that a lot more fun will be had with his involvement.


We will be starting this ride leaving Edinburgh at 09.30 on Saturday 26th May....I will let you know more details of the ride a few days before we set off.

WHY...?

Despite a lot of the UK being hit by freezing conditions with snow over the past week...down here in this  part of the south coast we have managed to avoid the worst of the bad weather. 
Yes, we have had some very cold nights and riding my bike over the past few days has been a bitterly cold experience but as yet I have not seen any snow, although the weather forecast for the next few days is telling us that we should expect to see a snowfall soon. 


Avoiding the really bad weather has been working in my favour, allowing me to get out on most days of the week in my attempt to clock up as many miles as possible early in the year. 
I am doing this to take the pressure off me in the months to come in my pursuit of hitting 10,000 miles this year.


The other day as I was riding on one of my favourite circular rides, my thoughts started to wander as they often do as I am spinning along. 
The question "why do I do this?" floated through my head. 
I am often asked why I ride my bike and the answer to that one is simple...because I enjoy it so much....I love the physical act of spinning the pedals and the buzz that I get in covering the miles quicker than walking, but most of the time still slow enough to see the countryside that I am passing through...


These thoughts were coming and going through my mind as I arrived at the bottom of one of the many hills that I ride in this part of Dorset... This one in particular is a 20% beauty which has a real sting in the tail in the way that it has a really nasty kick up in the last quarter section. 
As I started to head in an upward direction my speed went in a downward direction and the question Why? entered my head again. 


Why do I like riding up hills so much? 


I dropped down the gears a bit and started to settle into a cadence that I knew  I was comfortable with.....then I started to struggle. 
No, I wasn't struggling with the hill so much as struggling with an answer to the question that had been posed in my head. 


The gradient continued to increase and I continued to drop through my gears one by one as my forward movement became slower. At this time of year the hill can become quite slippery, so it is better to remain seated...if you stand up on the pedals you run a real risk of spinning the rear wheel and losing all forward momentum. 


I have been riding this hill for a good few years now and it 'never' gets easier. The fitter I get I might go up it a bit faster, but it is never easy. 
I reached that last quarter section and the hill kicked up and I dropped down to 34/25 the smallest gear on the Tifosi . 


Why do I do this? 


That question was still floating around in my head and was still unanswered... My legs were hurting now...Lot's of thoughts now....I can't stop...I mustn't stop...If I do I will probably fall off the bike on this hill....If I stop I will never get started again....Why? Why do I do this... I'm 64 years old..I could be at home in the warm....My feet wouldn't be feeling like blocks of ice....I must be mad riding this hill at this time of year....Why? 


Then all of a sudden I am at the top...the road levels out and I click up through the gears. I pass the car park at the summit viewpoint...in the summer it's usually filled with cars but today it's empty. I ride along the short level  summit road  and realize that I still haven't managed to answer that question..Why do I like to ride up hills?  


I reach the sharp left hand bend click up further through the gears...in the big ring now and the road starts to descend. 


The descent from this hill is exhilarating...just two small bends in the middle...the rest is straight down with a very sharp left hand bend at the bottom.  
I am now in my highest gear...a glance at the Garmin tells me that I am travelling at 43mph.... 44mph....45mph around the two short bends and into the straight..I glance at the Garmin again 46mph.... 47mph...... 


I am approaching that sharp left hander at the bottom.. one last glance and it's nudging 50mph. 
I brake hard and then negotiate the bend...I sit up and flick the lever to drop me down to the middle of the rear cogs. 


As I head along the road at a steady 20 mph that little question pops into my head again....Why?....Why do I love riding up hills so much? 


No, it's not just the descent. 


Exhilarating as it is, if that was the only reason... I could just push my bike to the top and then ride down the hill...no it must be something else. There must be some other reason why I get some form of enjoyment in the struggle to the top. 


Perhaps...just perhaps....it's because I then feel that I have earned the right to enjoy the descent....But it is only perhaps......!!

MORE ON THE WORLD CYCLE RACING - GRAND TOUR.....

Further to my last post and checking out the various riders that will be competing in this event.....two riders are of particular interest to me.....

The first rider whom I would like to draw attention to is STUART LANSDALE.

Stuart is based down here in Dorset....at Dorchester the county town. 

It would appear that he is the youngest of the riders competing at 21 years old. 

His route means he plans to travel east. 

He will be riding a Steel Framed Dawes bicycle which will be shod with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres. 

The regular readers of this blog will be aware that these are the tyres that my cycling buddy JD used on his bike on our ROCK2UK ride back from Gibraltar...JD swears by them so I am sure that they will serve Stuart well. 

Stuart's previous cycling experience is UK to Berlin plus he has also done various Trekking trips including The Wonderland Trail in the USA.....the Annarpurna Base Camp Trek and he also hiked the GR20 in Corsica.

The other rider who has attracted my attention is MARTIN WALKER.

Now Martin has actually taken time out from what is obviously a busy time of preparation, to contact me here at 'Purple Towers'. (Check out my comments box for my last post)

Martin is based in London and is 38 years of age and he is another of the riders who will be setting off in an easterly direction. 

He will be riding an upgraded Rose ProSL 2000 with an aluminium frame. His bike is also shod with Schwalbe tyres but his choice is for the Ultremo ZX's. 

Interestingly Martin  has had no previous cycle challenge experience and he describes himself as just an ordinary Joe..

I am sure that you, like me, will be following the progress of both these guys once they set off on this event on the 18th February....Let us all wish them well and the very best of luck to them and also the other riders, on this fantastic adventure that they are embarking on.

A GLOBAL BIKE RACE

On Saturday the 18th February starting at 12 noon,  ten unsupported solo riders will be setting off from Greenwich Park in London UK to race 18,000 miles around the world in the World Cycle Racing - Grand Tour. 


GPS trackers and a special race commentary mean that their progress can be followed in real time in what has been described as 'the longest, toughest adventure race in the world'. 


Well,  that really puts my puny efforts in cycling from Gibraltar back to the UK to shame. 
Maybe I should think again on my plans for riding the length of EuroVelo route 6..... something even further perhaps..?


If you are interested in knowing more about this race...I have put in a direct link in my LINKS panel....just click on WORLD CYCLE RACING - GRAND TOUR.

A GOOD JANUARY.......

It's been a good January on the cycling front here at Purple Towers.... 


After failing to reach my 2011 mileage target of 10,000 miles by just under 646 miles -  2012 has started really well.
Helped by the mild weather that we have experienced during January I managed to achieve  1019 miles total for the month....This is a real first for me as I have never passed 1000 miles so early in the year. I'm pretty pleased with that, especially as I also achieved 'nearly OAP' status of 64...I will update my blog mileage counter at the weekend as normal.


We shall just have to see how the rest of the year pans out, but I have high hopes that if everything works out well I will hit my stupid target this year. I don't know why I set myself targets, other than giving myself something to aim at. However I do get a lot of fun trying to achieve them and perhaps that is reason enough.....


February has started a lot colder with freezing conditions last night and patchy ice on the roads today.....I took it very easy out on my ride today as I don't want another broken collarbone...once was enough! 


I got back home after three and a half hours with blocks of ice on the end of my legs. 
Well , actually my feet were still there, but they did feel like blocks of ice. 
I ride wearing two pairs of socks (1 thick & 1 thinner) plus a pair of overshoes and I still suffer with frozen feet.....
I'm nice and warm, it's just my feet. I am fine for the first couple of hours but after that my feet just get colder and colder......


Does anyone else suffer with this? If so what do you do to keep your little tootsies warm?