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Metric Century Chat

here's a thread for chat about metric century, so we don't have to post in the competition thread.

First things first. DaSy: not sure why you couldn't edit. posts get locked if someone replies to them, but that shouldn't have happened with yours. I'll see if can work out what's up.

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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114 comments

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OldRidgeback | 14 years ago
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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.

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DaSy | 14 years ago
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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...

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Tony Farrelly | 14 years ago
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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

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Blackhound | 14 years ago
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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.

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DaSy | 14 years ago
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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.

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DaSy | 14 years ago
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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.

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dave atkinson | 14 years ago
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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  1

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Jon Burrage | 14 years ago
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Fao : Dave and Fringe, just re-did our tintern ride, beautiful weather...managed it 37 minutes quicker too...must be the bike!

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Fringe | 14 years ago
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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.

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Jon Burrage | 14 years ago
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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...  39

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DaSy replied to dave atkinson | 14 years ago
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dave_atkinson wrote:

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  1

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.

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DaSy | 14 years ago
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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.

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Blackhound | 14 years ago
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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!

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dave atkinson replied to DaSy | 14 years ago
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DaSy wrote:

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.

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  1

gonna try and do it soon though...

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Blackhound | 14 years ago
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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.

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DaSy | 14 years ago
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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?

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dave atkinson | 14 years ago
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sorry dasy, deleted it now so it's looks like you're raving about nothing  1

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DaSy | 14 years ago
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To be honest Dave, I don't need much help to look like that...

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DaSy | 14 years ago
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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...

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DaSy | 14 years ago
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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?

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canyonsi | 14 years ago
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think sounds good, as looking at having a bash this "year" and already know will struggle Feb & June.

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dave atkinson | 14 years ago
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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  4

i feel like i've been beaten up

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rcdavies | 9 years ago
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My log seems to have disappeared from the Comptetion page. Anyone else had this problem?

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mrmo replied to rcdavies | 9 years ago
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rcdavies wrote:

My log seems to have disappeared from the Comptetion page. Anyone else had this problem?

at the start of the comments press all, it probably shows the last 30 posts now?

i would suggest then using ctrl f to find your post

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