Metric Century Chat

Thanks Dave, the ride from hell needs to be logged!

i did my first today

it's going to take all month for my legs to recover. i think i prefer the short sprints

ride from hell? i'm intrigued...

I cheated by waiting till i was visiting my folks in (flattish) Ipswich instead of biting the bullet and doing it in (far from flat) Bath. Nice ride, I was testing some Gipiemme wheels too and forgot to check the tyres, so didn't notice the bead wasn't in properly and the rear wheel blew out right by the valve at about 6.30am in the wastelands outside Lavenham. Took me three goes to patch it with my fat, frozen fingers...

As I still couldn't edit my old one, could you delete the old one Dave when you get a chance.

Well this weeks ride was in pouring rain and gale force headwinds, but still felt better than last weeks.

I've been suffereing with a virus for a few weeks, and instead of resting properly I've carried on training as before.

3 weeks ago my Saturday ride was what really brought it on, I was feeling iffy in the morning, and after my 70 mile ride I came down with it properly. I was off work for a few days but by the weekend was feeling okay so went out on the same route and after about 60 miles I suddenly felt awful and made it home feeling exhausted. I laid off the bike for the rest of the week and tried again last weekend, but this time I decided to do a hilly 90 miles. I was flying for the first 70 miles and then died on my arse again, the last 20 miles although done quick enough really were purgatory (my HTFU wristband was all that kept me going!).

This week I've done lots of tempo and interval rides, and this weekends longer ride was a 3 hour zone 3 affair that was wet cold and uncomfortable, but felt better than last week. Still not feeling on form but such is life.

So there is my diatribe about my ride from hell.

when planning a century loop, don't pass within 4 miles of your house after 40 miles Just couldn't be arsed to haul myself out on the last loop. Was out lights testing, pitting the L&M Stella 120 against the WF606A. It's better, but not £80 better what is good is having them both on together though!

Set off on Saturday and thought this is hard - maybe I had better drop to the middle ring. Then realised I was in the middle ring:-( One mile in I went over a small road bridge - it felt like The Galibier!

Met up with Alan and Richie and was dropped on the first minor climb big time and offered to leave them to it. Calimed theywere happy to pootle after an epic ;ast week so we continued. So we soldiered on and the first 50k were just the same. After a black coffee and a nice danish pastry at Breedon on the Hill I felt much better. And got my point - thanks to them really.

And it looks like my APril point may be the Ronde Flanders sportif:-)

After spending so long on the turbo trainer, it was nice to actually clock up some proper road miles today.

I tried some Mule bars today, as my mate owns a bike shop and likes me to test everything that comes in (it's a tough job!), they were really nice. I started out loving Torq bars, but find them a bit on the chewy side when it's cold. I then switched allegiance to Clif bars, but they make me cough (don't ask, I'm strangely easy to make cough?).

Mule bar in Chocolatey Fig was great, tasted nice, easy to eat even when cold, and a consistency that avoided the almost inevitable coughing fit.

So that was Saturday, lots of climbing, a metric century and something chocolatey to eat....sort of a kinder egg of a day.

And I should rack up a few in June, in fact I should get 6 centuries in in 6 days. Doing a coast to coast across the Pyrenees, the third day goes over the Peyresourde, Aspin and the Tourmalet, that should be a well earned point in the MCC!

Blackhound - are you doing the long or short route? That 270km route sounds like hell on earth!

Doing the shorter one which I think is 140km. The long one has a lot of flat miles and that distance is a long way in April. Will head straight for the Kemmelberg!

Stayed in Luchon the other year and did Peyresourde / Aspin / Peyresourde - it'll be a nice day oif weather holds. Doing thr Pyrennean Raid?

No, but the route is very similar. It's a supported tour/holiday, all hotels etc are provided. I land in San Sebastian, then coach all riders and bikes across to Argeles sur Mer on the opposite coast, then ride back to San Sebastian across the Pyrenees. The Plat D'Atet looks like it might be a bit of a handful, and Tourmalet is never easy.

 I've always fancied giving it a go

...though as a fat lad i rather think it'd be beyond me. one tour climb in a day is enough for me

anyone thinking of doing the ardechoise next year? i've been twice and i can't recommend it highly enough. thinking of sneaking back next year if i've amassed enough parenting points come june...

to get a scoring ride in for the first month... which has been 2 months

do you reckon we'll get any more takers for a full year of centuries?

I was going to be doing a 100km+ ride on Sunday. As of today I am coughing up lumps of lung butter, so I'm almost certainly not going to be able to

When I left my house it was nice winter sunshine, I was nicely wrapped up but all in black which was okay until about 40 miles out I rode into the densest fog I've seen for a while.

I was glad to get out of that without being mown down!

Still it was a nice ride, and finally tracked down the source of an annoying click on my bike, so I'm a happy boy.

I also got on well with my new low tech saddle, I've swapped from a carbon railed Arione that weighs almost nothing, to a San Marco Regal that weighs about 4 kilo's...it was very comfy though.

sadly the closest i got to wheeled transport was a pushchair round the christmas market, since i'm in charge of the nippers this weekend... especially galling when that titanium charge is knocking about whispering 'test me!'

really cold here today, and looking like it's going to get even colder - metcheck was sugesting that wednesday's ride home from work is going to be through a windchill of -8°. yowch.

anyone got any snow?

My Christmas day ride managed to happen again this year. I usually take a mountain bike, and am guaranteed a ride in Afan or Glycorrwg when visiting the in-laws in Swansea. This year though I really only wanted to ride the road bike on Christmas day, so took a chance and packed that bike only.

Well the weather was great, cold but dry and calm. The climb up Cimla is always a rude awakening but quiet. As I climbed the start of the Bwlch past Afan visitor centre it was still calm until I got to the climb proper at Blaengwynfi, at which point I rode into the most insane headwind which stayed against me right over the top and down into Treorchy. It nearly blew me to a standstill at one point.

The rest of ride through Treorchy and up and over Rhigos was calm again. I even got a tailwind all the way back down the long straight from Glyn Neath to Neath Abbey which had me keeping up with the cars through Neath at around 25-30mph!

So I at last got a metric century in for December...anyone else managed a Christmas day ride!

... i was pursuing the more traditional christmas goals of sloth and gluttony

was thinkg in might get out today but unfortunately came down with some kind of sick bug last night (me & the wife both) so i'm a bit drained today. and time is running out for my december ride!

happy christmas one and all...

lucky it wasn't cold or anything i was planning to go out to weston super mare but that starts with a 2 mile descent and i couldn't face it... went the other way where it's flat for a couple of miles so i could get a bit of blood flowing. even so, my feet were pretty numb after about halfway... the computer didn't register a positive temperature till about three hours in.

stayed on the main roads for this one because all the lanes just looked like instant death. but there wasn't any traffic anyway. even on the A roads i could feel the rear wheel slipping when i stood up, was pretty icy on the roads that hadn't been salted, and there were plenty of them. still, had a good run and got to the 100k mark in 4:05 which is quick for a fat lad like me

i got weird wind too, DaSy - calm for ages and then a big blast coming out of wells on the only long climb of the route, i was grovelling up it at a snail's pace. it was windy on the descent too, but then it just stopped. odd

When I left my house this morning the weather was cold-ish but no ice on the cars etc so I didn't expect it to be too bad. I wrapped up well anyway.

After about 25 miles I was on top of the South Downs, and it was like a scene from Narnia! The trees and and fields were all frozen solid and everywhere was white for as far as I could see. The next 25 miles stayed like this, very picturesque but bloody cold.

Still, I did over 70 miles at a reasonable pace, and was still feeling strong by the time I reached home.

The bikes a mess, but still....

I went out briefly yesterday and it was like that around here too when you got up high. It looked amazing, and the roads were dry, but it was like riding through a freezer.

Dave,

How did you find a 100k route with only 1 large climb around Bath? I could do with knowing that route!

...cause it's all pretty major roads. A36 to Warminster, A362 to Frome, A361 to Shepton Mallet, A371 to Wells, A39 back to Bath. The climb out of Wells is the only really long one (not counting the Wellsway back up to your gaff!) though the elevation map is more upsy-downsy than the ride felt. there's the climb on the A36 from brassknocker but that's right at the start so you're fresh, and a couple of other shorter ones.

I'm in!!

After Sundays club ride ended up a lot longer than expected (also with more punctures than expected) I am nervously committing myself - will I regret this millstone on my shoulders?

Only one way to find out!!!!!!

Nice one Skardy, you can never regret riding your bike more!

The evenings will soon be drawing out and lots more opportunities to clock up the metrics.

Si

a combination of wife in ireland and kids at home means that i've missed my last chance for a january ride... and skardy didn't invite me out...

here's hoping that february brings me more joy. and more riding time. and less work, though it seems there's scant chance of that 

...to get out on a decent ride, the weather and varoius DIY obligations have kept me away from the long road rides for what seems like an eternity.

I have kept the training up, at least 10 hours a week, but on either the Fortius or rollers. There's bee lots of high intensity work, and I almost feel that I have improved over the standard trianing I had been doing, but it does lack the passion of actually riding a bike!

Did the Chippenham flapjack audax with my Dad on Sunday. I hope it still counts as they had a beans on toast stop at 50K which was very welcome in the sub zero conditions.

I would thoroughly recommend it for anyone considering it in the future, I am sure there was less tha 5km on main roads and the rest was on virtually traffic free country lanes. Plus lots of stops for tea, flapjacks of course and beans on toast!

Sorry for not inviting you Dave you've made me feel bad, my only excuse is I saw your "single parent for the weekend" comment on Facebook!

Give us a shout when you are planning your February ride.

Still got to get my Feb ride in but the March one is all sorted - Skardy and I are off to to the Dunkery Dash on 1 March: http://www.aukweb.net/cal/index.htm

anyone else planning to be there? i reckon that'll be a point well earned

...assuming the weather holds out in South Wales (yeah, I know!) is...

...to load correctly!

They always preview okay, but when I save them they turn into a line instead of an image...what am I doing wrong?

d'you mean your profile image? cause i can see it fine... well enough to see some pretty big freakin' hills... gospel pass?

That doesn't surprise me, must be my browser settings.

No, not Gospel, it's Maerdy Mountain and the Bwlch, plus of course the Cimla and Efail Fach hills at the start and end.

It's my regular route when down with the in-laws, a nice tour of the mining villages of S.Wales. I really like this route, the climbs are fairly long and the scenery is great. On most of the mountains you hardly see a car too.

It's no fun in the rain though, so hoping for clear weather on Saturday.

http://metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/today.asp?zipcode=newport

have fun on the bwlch

It reminds me of that scarey faced girl from The Grudge....

...in erik sandberg's head!

http://www.eriksandberg.net/erik_sandberg_hairy_children_1.htm 

it's actually starting to scare me, too. i think i might go for something else i was just a bit bored of the 'squeeeesh your head!' pic

...well the weather held out in South Wales, and a great ride resulted.

There are some great climbs in the Rhondda, in 65 miles I easily got over 2000 metres of climbing. I can't wait for the longer, warmer days so that I can get up into the Beacons to extend this loop to an imperial century.

My climbing started with Glyneath Bank, a nice mile or so of 6 - 7% with lots of little waterfalls to the right to make it interesting.

Maerdy mountain was snowy and misty, and the first couple of bends at over 15% always make it a daunting climb, but the ride back down toward Treorchy is great, if not a little scarey, as you don't get much time to decide if the corners are just wet, or icey!

I always forget about the climb up from Tylorstown to Penrhys as it is not a mountain climb, but at about a mile or so at or around 15% for most of it, it really does demand more respect than I ever remember to give it.

The last mountain climb was the Bwlch from the Treherbert side which is a nice long open climb that looks and feels quite alpine with the slopes stacking on top of each other above you. It's mostly around 7%, but fairly long, especially when you reach what looks like the top only to have to take a sharp right to add another 1/2 mile of climbing to reach the real top. It was lovely and snowy up there, which just added to the alpine feel.

To finish off with I had the brutal but short Efail Fach climb out of Pontrhydyfen, and then a great descent down the Cimla, made better by overtaking a car that had pulled out on me near the top irritatingly. Her face was a picture as I went past at 40mph on the bends!

To think that in years gone by I used to miss all this in favour of MTBing in the Afan trails, the roads are so much more fun round there...

Perfect weather for a nice 70 mile loop in the Chilterns.

For some reason that felt quite tough today, much harder than last weeks romp through the Rhondda valley despite being similar length and with less climbing...?

I set out to get up onto Priddy on top of the Mendips via Chew Valley Lake. I managed to follow a large amount of the National Cycle Route. Lots of very quiet but undulating country lanes and an excellent desent through East Harptree with Chew Valley Lake in full view. Not sure how much climbing was involved but it felt like a lot although not quite up there with The Rhondda Valley !

I got close to home at the 50 mile mark so with no commitments for the rest of the day decided I may as well stick a little loop on the end (as flat as I could think of) to make it up to a century.

It was a cracking day for it although very cold & blustery up on the Mendips with a few bits of snow still lying about.

After all that effort it is now time for an unwholesome Saturday night to undo the good work!

fantastic. what a day for a ride. set out at 6am and went along the canal to Bradford-on-Avon, up past Westbury to Warminster and along the Wylye Valley, which is about my favourite place to ride. and it was at its most beautiful today. was going to try and go across the river at Longford Castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longford_Castle) but i chickened out cause i think it's a private road. maybe next time.

The Ridgeback Solo was well behaved all the way. Given that there's barely a hill worth the name on the route, the 72in gear was fine even for a big lad like me. finished in 5h10 so about 13.5mph average which is pretty good for me it handles well, the frame is a bit harsh but i've swapped out the seatpost for a carbon one and put a comfy saddle on and that's taken the sting out of it. bars are too narrow though...

skardy - still snow on the mendips? they must have had a right old dump of it up there...

looking forward to the dunkery dash next week, assuming i'm not too late with the application

Good work Dave, sounds like a really enjoyable ride with superb scenery - on a singlespeed as well! Did you cycle back home up the hill?

See you next week to hopefully get another century on the board!

70 miles on a singlespeed is a good effort Dave.

That is tempting me to drag the fixie out, but it's a bit track specific, so the geometry really doesn't lend itself to comfy road miles, I used to do 40 to 50 mile rides on it, but more than that was a tad unpleasant.

I've been hoodwinked into riding the Afan trails next weekend, so my first offroad ride for a couple of years, that should entertaining!

Skardy and I went out on the Dunkery Dash today, a point well earned I reckon. It's out and back from North Petherton near Bridgwater and the control is a horsebox equipped with mountains of cake and a tea urn up on the highest point of the road by Dunkery Beacon. Climb out of NP was fine, followed by a dash down the hill to Cothelstone. The hill from Elworthy to Ralegh's Cross was complete murder, but up on Exmoor we tagged on with a faster group and hung off the back most of the way to the checkpoint. Stopped for a cup of tea at North Wheddon Farm (www.northwheddonfarm.co.uk) to see Julian the proprietor - he was telling us about the snow. They had four feet of snow, they lost all their animals in it and had to go rescue them, and it took them ten hours to dig their car out. That's weather

Not so hard on the way back (net downhill) but the climb from Cothelstone is a killer, especially when there's a guy chillaxin' on the hairpin and you think he's made it to the top when there's another mile to go. You know who you are. Altogether we turned it round in 5h17 with about 45 mins of stops, so not bad for a fat lad, although i did have the benefit of a BMC SLC01

Here's a pic of Skardy at the top - thanks for the company and the encouragement!

A cracking ride with some steep hills, I have never wanted a triple but would have been quite happy with a compact on sunday! It would also have been good if my computer was working to see what speed we clocked going back down to Elworthy - it felt quick!

Big thanks to Dave for leading the way and helping us post a respectable time, particularly blazing a trail across the undulating terrain on top of The Quantocks.

Happy days!

Well, that was a nice ride today, Mostly flat, open quiet roads all the way to the outskirts of Windsor. Then you do battle with what must be the most arrogant drivers in the world, into the centre of Windsor for a quick circuit round the town and the castle and retrace my route back.

It's a good top of zone 2 workout, you can keep a good rhythm and push fairly hard for 3.5 hours.

I don't think I've ever made it the couple of miles from the outskirts to the castle without one of the ludicrous drivers trying to push me into the kerb or generally attempt to run me off the road. I have had a few good moments when I've caught up with them at the next set of lights, and explained the finer points of driver etiquette to them. They generally listen quietly as they realise I appear to be quite irritated.

Clocked in at 105km yesterday on a beautiful day in the Peak. Quite a big group initially but I had to push on with 3 others from Hartington cafe stop to catch a train to London town.

The route went out over an old BR research test track, quiet roads to Ashbourne and then Tissington and High Peak trail and home along the A6. Ended up riding an old '94 rigid Kona as a few guys only had mtbs. Lovely views all over, very lucky where I live.

Average speed was barely 1km per hour down on last few long road rides so maybe a semblance of form. |Roll on Flanders.

and good work on doing 105km on a mtb...

I'm off up to Carsington for a week in may, you'll have to show me the sights

Just don't make me go up to Darley Moor from Rowsley – did that last time and it nearly ended me

Away for two weeks in May but if around you're welcome.

There is the steep climb that was used in the National Hill Climb last year, that is a beast. Ride towards Chatsworth for 1-2 miles and take a left in Beeley and a much nicer climb. Comes out in the same place ultimately but a ~15 minute alpine style climb.

Carsington is a good spot, about an hours ride from me so ride that way frequently. Not to far to Hope etc either.

...sun shining and a nice temperature, it was a bit gusty though.

A nice 85 miles in the Chilterns taking in a few nice climbs, and the obligatory Emus and Llamas, plus a roe deer drinking in a stream as I passed, all very pleasant.

I decided to stop using energy bars in favour of buttered Soreen, and on today's evidence I can safely say that I'll be sticking with that particular energy food, much nicer to eat, and seemed to keep me going better...

Yep that's always been my energy food of choice - gonna try it with butter next time

I realise im not officially in the metric century challenge due to my failure to post rides in previous months but there is no harm in doing it for my own fun.

Nice 110km ride from Brislington to Weston Super Mare and back. Out via Bristol Airport and Congresbury, back via clevedon, nailsea and clifton suspension bridge.

Gorgeous weather, nice and still. Lots of cyclists out, good times!

you only gotta do four scoring months to be in with a shout for the 'minor' prizes. not that the major prize will be that major...

okay...that sounds good to me.

Im on one point! Roll on summer.

Right, that's it, I'm gonna go back to bed and stop all this unnecessary torture I've been subjecting myself to in pursuit of the major (now relegated to not so major!) prizes...!

That said, I have a 100km loop round the Black Mountain planned this Saturday, just in case.

...what a great day for a ride Saturday was. I did one of my favourite loops in the Brecon Beacons. just under 70 miles with a couple of thousand metres of climbing (why do I always have to express distance as imperial and altitude gain as metric?).

The grueling climb up to the Storey Arms was even quite enjoyable for once (it's not that steep, just long and arduous). The descent down the Devils Elbow near Heol Senni was insane, I nearly overcooked one of the hairpins in my excitement, but just about kept to the tarmac.

It is one of the most picturesque rides I know, and the Malt loaf is working a treat too...

First of the year, though neve done more than two.

My mate is training for an Ironman so was going, sounded a good idea. Set off in sunny conditions but up on the moors South of Buxton became very misty. The view from the Peak Cafe at the top of the Cat & Fiddle was to the end of the car park!

Approaching Earl Sterndale weather improved again for ride home. 101.5 miles, Flanders will be a breeze....

Went out on singlespeed mtb today and threw in 6 hill reps. Felt surprisingly well recovered.

Great day for a ride today, I was feeling really good and had loads in reserve despite going pretty hard on the climbs.

To be honest this is the first ride I've felt like this for a long time, I've had to push through feeling rough on all my bigger rides, and even some of my shorter ones. I hope this feeling is here to stay...

The Lambourn Downs were windy, as ever, and of course the wind was against me. The scenery around there is nice and the roads quiet, so all in all a nice spin out.

quick note to everyone in the MCC: because of the way the site is now handling comments (we're phasing out the title box and soon it won't be on the comments at all) you'll need to add your name to the top of your list of rides, rather than as a title. hope that makes sense...

I tried that Dave, it appears to take the first x number of characters, as I put my name at the top of the post once I noticed the change but it put my name plus the first few characters of the next line. I then put a few blank lines in after my name but it ignored them and still picked up the first line too.

This looked weird so I went back to just letting it do it's thing. What is the best way?

sounds like you've done more testing on the site than i have

doesn't really matter as the info at the bottom tells us who's who. just makes the 'recent comment' updates look a bit odd! so I guess we just all do what you've done, when we finally do another century...

Last weekend my metric century was the Ronde van Vlaanderen, 140km route.

Started off a little cold but warmed up to a nice riding temperature. Sun came out for the Muur-Kaplemuur climb and into the finish. 19,000 riders all told, of which 3,500 did the full 269km route. It was reported that 700 travelled from the UK. The roads were full of riders and my mate and I ended up walking the Molenberg (climb 1) and Koppenberg (climb 5) due to the narrowness and mass of riders. The cobbles were incredibly hard, much harder than I anticipated, and going down was worse than climbing. Many bottles and a few pumps littered the road, our only minor problem was some bottle cages working loose.

Finished in 6hr 10 minutes somewhat slower than I hoped but there was a number of slower sections held up with other riders. A wonderful experience and the opportunity too see the pro's the following day. We saw the womens start (including the Road.cc rider of the year) the Molenberg and Ten Bosse and the women approaching the Koppenberg.

A fantastic weekend and easily done from the UK.

Sounds like a good time was had by all. Nice pic of the new vision team as well...may well be putting this in ym diary for next year.

Managed to get an imperial century in today, the joy of the spring weather!

A spin down the Test valley, across into Winchester and backup into Whitchurch past the silk mill and home.

I took some rather up-market energy food today too, a bagel with humous and smoked salmon and a bag full of fig rolls. The best food yet, the salty salmon was lovely, and satisfied that desire to not keep eating sweet stuff.

When I saw that you'd 'Managed an imperial' in the comments box on the homepage my first thought was that you'd had some sort of piercing…

I just googled an Imperial piercing - I could make a pretty good guess, but never heard of one before - I decided not to play the video of the guy proudly boasting of getting his imperial done, especially as it was by a guy calling himself Dark Porn Star!

I assume some manner of Prince Albert, but my fear is greater than my curiosity, so blissful ignorance is my preferred option...

Just got home after my latest metric. Bristol via Clevedon to Cheddar, along lanes and back roads to Radstock then back to Bristol via Bath. 131.6km, cold at first but lovely and sunny now!

Just managed to sneak in my century for April - my last one was 1st March and I certainly felt it!

Dragged myself out of bed early and got out with the local club, was hanging on at times but enjoyed the ride. Started in Bath and went to somewhere called Urchfont in Wiltshire - I know nothing about it other than there is a quality farmshop & cafe with fantastic cake.

I got a nice warm metric in today, and all at zone 2. Bloody zone 2 is the bane of my life at the moment!

80 miles around a new route I hadn't tried before in the Beacons was wonderful.

Based around a loop I saw in Cplus a while back, took me from Skewen up through Brynamman and over the Black Mountain to Llangadog across to Llandovery, then Trecastle to Senybridge and Defynnog and back via Crai, Abercraf, Pontardawe and home.

sounds nice. i'm in derbyshire at the moment (carsington) and looking at the map any MC i get in (unlikely) would be a fairly tough one.

My second metric for the weekend saw me leading a group of riders from my mates shop, on a 4 hour zone 2 ride.

I earned myself a 90's Look KG171 in Once team livery, complete with Campag group and mavic handbuilt wheels. I pick it up today, and have to say that I think I earned it to be honest...

20 riders all wanting to show how fast they are when you are trying to keep the pace steady and in zone, then some sprint off and fragment the group! I stayed with the last man until 10 miles from home, at which point he wanted to stop and insisted I went on as he was happy to make his way home from there. I did a two up TT with the one guy who knew how to ride a zone 2 ride (which we now ignored and sat in zone 5!). As we passed some of the group of riders who had sprinted off an hour or so before, having bonked, we waved laughed and rode on!

Most of the others had called for lifts from wives and parents too it turned out. The only ones who came back in good shape were those who kept up a steady zone 2 with me....

I had a great ride on my new climbing route, dubbed the Torture 80, as it is an adaptation of Reading CC's Torture 40 ride in the Chilterns. I added 20 miles either end to get to and from, plus add in a couple more climbs.

It actually ended up as the Torture 90, as just as I was heading home on the last 15 miles, I was halted by a serious RTA that had the road closed off completely; I'd done 65 miles and just shy of 2K metres of ascent, only to be faced with climbing back up the valley on the longest climb of the day for the second time, and detouring 10 miles out of my way to get home. Still, shouldn't moan as someone else was having a much worse day than me for sure, hope all were okay, but it didn't sound good from what the Police were saying!

Rest tomorrow, and ready for another 85 miler on Monday.

I was going to say there's nothing worse than having to add in a detour at the end of a hard ride, but being involved in a RTA is clearly worse, hope everyone's okay. our MC on friday went to wales, so it did have hills in, but it went to wales via the flatlands of the severn estuary, so it wasn't too hard

Todays ride wasn't as frustrating as I'd imagined it was going to be. Everyone was warned there would be no lunch stop, no going back for stragglers, 85 miles at a steady zone 2, so anyone turning up knew what they were letting themselves in for.

9 started the ride, 3 dropped out at about 25 miles (seemed odd!), and the rest kept to plan pretty well. The owner of the bike shop I ride with had the most mechanicals I have ever experienced! Front tyre came off the rim twice, two punctures after that, stem bolts came loose and the handlebars rotated round on a climb and his shoe cleats came undone. I warned him about the dangers he put us fellow riders in, what with me nearly dieing laughing on several occasions, it was deemed best to take the piss just out of swinging range as his sense of humour was starting to leave him, obviously that was exposing an opportunity too good to miss!

The last 10 miles turned into a TTT but with a difference, I did an ITT and everyone else practiced there pacelines behind me, they were very good at it too.

We lost one man from that line at about 8 miles to go and never saw him again, but it had been agreed before hand that it was everyman for himself inside the last 10. All finished off in fine style with a 50+ mph descent of Streatley Hill...a nice 81 miles clocked in the end, and after Saturdays tough 90, I think it will be a gentle one hour spin tomorrow.

What a great ride I had yesterday, which took me out via Swansea and over the Black Mountain - this is such a nice a climb, mostly around 7% but the wind can make that feel a bit harder. The descent down the other side is fast and long, which has you keeping up with the cars for a good few miles.

On to Llangadog is a nice flattish run, but the road surface is awful, and has your arms falling to sleep due to the constant vibration. I caught up with another rider, a retired guy on a lovely custom-built road bike of the early 80's, and I rolled along chatting to him until Llandovery, where we went our separate ways.

From Llandovery it is a long drag, it must be around 10 miles, of constant uphill drag to Sennybridge. It's rarely over 3%, but it does start to get pretty taxing. the upside is the view is stunning.

From Sennybridge the route starts to turn back toward home into the centre of the Beacons National Park, and the toughest climbs of the day. A sign told me the main road was going to be going up at 16% , a fairly tough little climb, then I turned toward the main objective for the day - The Devils Elbow. I have come down this many times, but never gone up it!

Suffice to say it lives up to it's name, at never less than 11% and going over 17% in places, it is a tough climb, but also absolutely gorgeous. With that out of the way it is a stunning ride down the valley to Glyn Neath and then the rolling road back to Skewen and then home.

This is a great route, over 2K metres of climb, great views and some quiet roads (not the A40 bit though!).

Lovely (if hard) ride today. Down from Bristol to clevedon, back up through congresbury to the airport, round the back to congresbury again before heading through to cheddar, up the gorge, back down the other side through burrington and back home along the a38 past the airport once again. Wanted to go further but got through my two 750ml water bottles way quicker than expected so kept it down to 111km.

After the first weekend I can remember that I didn't get out on the bike, I used my lieu time to good effect this afternoon and got a quick metric in.

A blast up to Windsor Castle, a loop round it and then back. The weather held out and I seemed to be going okay; I was convinced that all my training was to no avail after missing my weekend rides, so I'm relieved to find I can still pedal!

Finally got a century in, the first one since April. Cracking morning out with the local club and I coped surprisingly well on the climbs, I did come up a bit short so had to keep going round the block until I ticked over the 62.2 miles!

Definitely not going to leave it so long until the next one!

My last three have been very different.
About a month ago I did part of the route of the Etape Caledonia a few days before the real thing. Beautiful course along Loch Tummel to Kinloch Rannoch. I lost my map out of the pocket on this section and took a wrong turning missing off the Loch Rannoch section. Ended up a few miles short so carried on up to the Killiecrankie visitor centre to make sure I got the metric century in. Rented a Giant Defy from Escape Route in Pitlochry for the day and it was a nice ride. A bit heavier then what I was used to with Tiagra level kit. Not sure of the retail price but if anybody wants a decent bike to get started on this would be a good reoomendation.
Missed out on the tack laden course as well.

About a week later I cycled from Stonehaven on the coast to Braemar via Glen Tanar and a hike a bike over a ridge. 67 miles on a full sus mtb with super views.

Last weekend was out with my mates into the Peak and did 64 miles. Had ot ridden with them since mid April as I have been away or doing some mtb events. Was nice to get on the Principia again and was riding better than I thought I might.

My Saturday long ride out was a loop I'd seen in the Comic a couple of weeks ago, as part of an interview with an ex-pro, Flavio Zappi.

It took me out via the Vale of the White Horse in Wiltshire, and then a right (rather than my usual left toward Lambourn)took me up toward Abingdon and Oxford.

The ride went through lots of quaint little villages, and eventualy popped out right in the middle of Oxford, and an interesting blast through the hectic town centre saw me outside Flavio's cafe - Zappi's (see my other thread about this experience - Zappi's Cafe).

Back through Blackbird Leys estate and Cowley, takes you through the industrial side of Oxford, then back out into the country for a picturesque run back home.

All in all, a great 101 miles, and a wonderful experience meeting Flavio.

It's a one tough job to coach bikers this much. Im impress with this people handling these many people.
life coaching program

Heh!

Yeah coaching is one tough job… followed the link on blokeys post above to Life coaching in the South West, thought 'well their very New Age in the West Country… probably be somewhere around Glasto…' it's in Phoenix, Arizona.

Is the above post some sort of spam I notice there is a very similar one somewhere else on the site too?

yeah I noticed those too...hmm

Well, that was some of my better metric's!

5 official metric centuries last week and 2 rides that only just missed by a few km's. They were also some of the toughest ones (to say the least), and consisted of the Col de Cou, Col de la Colombiere, Col de Aravis, Col de Saises, Col de Pre (twice), Cormet de Roselend, Val D'Isere, Col de L'Iseran, Col du Telegraphe, Col du Galibier, Col du Lautaret, Col d'Izoard, Col de Vars, Col de Restefonde, Col de la Bonette.

In total it was over 17,000 metres of ascent for last week. I don't think it's going to be quite the same riding in the Chilterns for the foreseeable future...

Sounds fantastic. What was it like riding with Obree?

Graeme Obree was a joy to get to know, he was pretty ill to start off with, he had a nasty chest cold or flu, so couldn't ride for the first couple of days, but he is as tough as they come, and was riding up the Galibier etc on the third day!

I have always seen him as an icon in the cycling world, and to get to know him was a real pleasure. He is really down to earth, and I'd like to think he became a friend by the end of the holiday. I will keep in touch with him, and if you are reading this Graeme, you know I'm expecting a certain package in the post!

I learned a lot from riding with him, and laughed a lot when talking to him.

I've also got to mention another guy on the trip that I really got on with; Ben from Bournemouth, who did the entire ride on a Charge Plug singlespeed! Chapeau dude...

Stuart from Essex also taught me a lot, and we paced many groups through the valleys and gorges together, it was great to ride with you mate.

Blimey, what gear was Ben pushing?

I think it was a 48x20 (mid 60's), he started with an 18 on the back, but the 20 made a bit more sense (to him at least!).

Mr. Obree taught him the pleasure of the zig-zag method of getting up the steeper sections, (of which there were many), and he would often overtake a group of French or German roadies on compacts, zig-zagging across the road on a 14% incline after a couple of hours of non stop climbing out of the saddle!

The fact he made the top of the Cime de Bonette was amazing, the top loop is a km of about 14% at just under 3000m high after hours of climbing. He really is a machine, and the funniest bloke I know.

That's hilarious, overtaking the all-the-gear guys on a Charge Plug.

Reminds me of a friend who was touring the Alps. He was heading up Alpe d'Huez on his flat bar hybrid, but got fed up with all the Dutch and German guys overtaking him on anorexic bikes. So he hid his panniers behind a barn in a field and headed on up, passing them all. (He says don't bother with Alpe d'Huez; it is boring. There are loads more interesting climbs, like the ones DaSy did.)

The Col du Pre and the descent off the Cormet de Roselend were worth the trip on their own. The Iseran was amazing, and the very sketchy descent from the Cime de la Bonette in a freezing hail storm will all stay with me for quite a while.

Yesterday was cool - an hour or so at the BMX track getting faster and faster, despite the heat. I need to work on my skills more - I've got the power now but not the skill to keep the front wheel up (manual in BMX lingo) over the jumps. I get a hit out of being airborne and being at 90 degrees as I crank it round a berm. It's a little different from road riding or normal banked track riding for that matter - think about a 400m sprint over jumps. I got home and drank a litre of water.

I did some laps this evening after work but couldn't match yesterday's pace.

So did you manage a 100km round the BMX track OldRidgeback?

The most I ever managed round the velodrome was about 75km and that took me the best part of 2 hours...

Wish I'd been young enough to get into BMX when it first hit - must be good for your bike handling skills and for learning to cope with hurting yourself on a bike

Was Obree still riding that 62 front he had at Bike Radar or something more sensible? Mind you there were some 1 in 4's near Ashbourne he negotiated.

He rides a 67 x 13 on his new hour record bike, but he was on a more gentlemanly arrangement on his Trek for the Alps.

He still rides with a very different pedaling style, with loads of seat layback. I learned a lot from him regarding pedal technique, and have incorporated it into my own style already, you might as well seize amazing opportunities like this to learn from such a natural and innovative rider as GO.

A nice, if not quite tough, South Wales 100 miles today.

I managed to climb the Black Mountain, through the Beacons National Park, and then up the evil and aptly named Devils Elbow, onto Glyn Neath Bank and over Rhigos, finally climbing the Bwlch. This amounted to not far off 3000m of ascent.

I managed to top up my already ludicrous tan, eat a very tasty bacon roll at the top of Rhigos, and get back to the in-laws for a waiting table full of food...a good day.

sounds lovely. except for the devil's elbow, that's purgatory. hoping to ride to ystradfelte on sat from bath, should be a nice MC and i get to jump in a waterfall at the end

Fao : Dave and Fringe, just re-did our tintern ride, beautiful weather...managed it 37 minutes quicker too...must be the bike!

nice..me and a mate did pretty much the same ride the other day but went up the B4228 and crossed over at St. Brivals towards Tintern/Raglan. slightly longer still as good, but with a few more uphill sections.

must do another friday afternoon Road.cc ride soon.

indeed, hopefully this friday!!! I start work monday so could be tricky. Im sure I can book a day off if its arranged in advance though.

Ive got my comedy tan lines back, my girlfriend will be happy...

Did you do this ride Dave, it sounds nice. I'd be interested in the route you take, as I plan to ride there from Reading, and any good known routes to that area would be useful.

My last 2 metric centuries were done in Majorca, so were very warm, windy and beautiful.

Majorca really is a great place to ride a bike. My first ride took me out from Palma (an insanely busy city with so many roads and one ways!), then out over the Coll de Soller with its never ending switchbacks, straight into the climb of the Puig Major (the highest peak on Majorca), the temperature was in the mid-thirties, and I pretty much had the roads to myself once out of Palma. I then came back via Lluc - with it's stunning monastry - and Inca, before heading back toward Palma.

The second ride, I followed the coast road out of Palma, past the airport, then up to Llucmajor. This was all done into an insane headwind, but for the first time in a long while, I had a headwind on the way out, but instead of my usual UK rides, I got a tailwind on the way back rather than a headwind in both directions.
Llucmajor was beautiful, with another striking monastry; at that point I turned toward Randa to climb the Puig Randa, to reach the Cura monastry that I have riden to so many times on my Tacx Fortius RLV of the tour of Majorca. It was funny to know what gear to take a particular bend in, or be ready for a steep section when on a ride you have never done in real life before. It was surprising quite how accurate the RLV of this ride was!
After an espresso in the monastry, I descended back toward Montiuri, then Algaida, followed by a wide loop to drop me bvack into rush hour Palma for a bit of sprint training, I out paced a few scooters through the centre, which ammused me but annoyed the riders, oh well.

I hired a nice Massi carbon bike with full Dura Ace and Fulcrum Racing 1's from Pro Bike Hire on the island, who delivered it to my hotel and collected it at the end. This was a joy, no fretting over my beloved Litespeed on the plane etc, and no struggling with it through the airport etc.

I can whole heartedly recommend Majorca as a riding destination, as well as a great place to holiday, I managed to fit in a couple of good rides without encroaching on my supposed non-cycling break with my wife too much.

Managed 5 scoring rides in the last week but it should have been 6.

A mate and I caught a ferry to Dublin and had a night on the town - me watching the WC qualifier against Cyprus. Hit a couple of literary pubs, one regular haunt of Brendan Behan and another mentioned in Ulysses.

Day 1 we rode to Athlone a nice town on the river Shannon. The next day I put on my green with red band cycling jersey for a return to Mayo which is the County GAA colours. We rode to Tuam, Cong and in to Co Mayo round Lough Mask to Partry to a b&b run by a former good level cyclist. Day 3 we raced, and beat, the rain through Castlebar, Pontoon, Ballina and round the coast to Sligo and past Ben Bulben and Yeats resting place.

Day 4 was a big day for me as I entered the North at Belleek for the first time. I had lived in Mayo as a young lad so entering the North felt strange. I knew it would be just regular people going about there lives and of course this is how it was. From Belleek we followed the North West passage route to Starbane and avoiding Derry we headed over towards Limavady finishing in the dark.

Day 5 we rode the beautiful NI coast to the Giant's Causeway and south to Magherafelt. This was only a 78 mile day as my bottom was suffering big time and I could not sit in the saddle and pedal - I was out of the saddle to pedal - and the pace was slowing. I bought some Sudacreme but another problem with my achilles was getting worse.

As it was a short day it meant the last day was going to be about 125 miles and I could not be sure of being able to do it so I abandoned and rode to Antrim and got the train to Dublin. My mate completed the ride and was well impressed with his first visit to Ireland. The weather was good, quite a bit of rain on the first day into Athlone and some in the Cong / Clonbur area but excellent after that. People friendly and helpful both sides of the border. But 10 euro for 2 pints of Guinness!

didn't in the end because the day out got cancelled so i would have had to ride back too, didn't fancy 160 miles

gonna try and do it soon though...

The hardest point!

The point scored last weekend took me 12.5 hours to achieve. I was ding the Cambrian Way off road cycle route. Two of us left Knighton into a gale with rain off and on. Progress was slow trying to make sure there was no navigation problems and hills steep. On one tarmac section I was struggling to achieve 8km an hour into the wind.

We had two unforced stops. My chain snapped causung a short delay and we saved a sheep from certain death. A sheep had run headlong into a fence and could not back out and was stuck. She had been there a while judging by the bare patch in front of her and the droppings behind. The Park tool had a serrated edge which we used to cut the fence and release her.

We got to Rhaydar about 16:30 which I was thinking would be a bit late to travel through the Elan valley. I called for accommodation and all was full and was resigned to a stay in Rhaydar and a 3 day trip. My mate said abiut trying anither place in Cwmystwyth a bit further along the route, We got a bed but it was a long ride to Cwmystwyth but at last we were moving quickly. Got to the accommodation at 21:40 and had a quick look at my trip computer; 99.85k! I was having that extra 150 meters so to the amazement of my mate and a shout from the b&b owner I popped down the road to a sign and turned back. 100.19k.

Next day was shorter with better weather. Some lovely scenery, dryish trails and solitude. Going back again next year.

I think the username above is appropriate if it's rhyming slang. I wonder if they can help me by supplying any of these for under £79.98?

sorry dasy, deleted it now so it's looks like you're raving about nothing

To be honest Dave, I don't need much help to look like that...

After last weeks aborted metric, due to a deluge of rain, an insane Mercedes driver, and the wasted effort it took me to drag him out of his window, it was nice to get back on track this weekend.

I was asked to lead a ride that I have done a few times solo, the Torture 80. It is a lot of climbing, on a series of 1 or 2km climbs, that are often around 17-18%. The 80 refers to it being an 80 mile route.

After lots of drop outs, we started with 4 riders, and after 40 miles we were down to just me and one other! He was definitely up for some hard work though, so we ended up doing the last 20 on the rivet and at least getting a metric in. I remember why I mostly ride alone again...

It's Halloween tomorrow, so will be time to start a new Metric Century Challenge.

Maybe we should change the rules to just be as many metrics as you can get in between the dates specified; that way it doesn't exclude anyone starting late, or who misses any particular month etc.

What do you think?

think sounds good, as looking at having a bash this "year" and already know will struggle Feb & June.

crikey. if i do one every month i'm pretty sure none will be as hard as the first. 65 miles into a crippling headwind that tore the roofs off houses not 3 miles from my route. plus i got absolutely drenched. was going down to see some friends and had to spend the first hour of the visit lying down on their bed

i feel like i've been beaten up