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It’s organised by the same
It’s organised by the same people that did Velo Birmingham last year. That filled up quick and I think this will too.
I think you can; you may get
I think you can; you may get covered in gloop doing it, and you may need a boot (or fiver) on the inside of the tyre if the hole is big.
There are also “patches” that you can push into the hole in the tyre that may also help, can’t remember the proper name.
I’m not going tubeless, friends who have still have problems, and still need to carry tubes/tyres/patches/levers etc, so I don’t see the point.
There’s a bunch of moaning miserable bastards on here.Hiyaaaaa!
I did it the first two years and loved it, it is a fantastic experience. The closed roads and the public cheering you on alone are phenomenal things to be part of, but to be flying through London in the early hours WITH NO CARS AT ALL is superb.Probably why there’s miserable peoples, you’ve done it twice others have had multiple rejections. Surely they could have next year’s first dibs for those not making this year…
I forgot to write, I have done it twice via the charity route, and entered the ballot every year but never once got a place that way. If you get a ballot place one year, you should automatically not get one the next year, in my view.
There’s a bunch of moaning
There’s a bunch of moaning miserable bastards on here. I did it the first two years and loved it, it is a fantastic experience. The closed roads and the public cheering you on alone are phenomenal things to be part of, but to be flying through London in the early hours WITH NO CARS AT ALL is superb. The bit back in from Putney past all the landmarks is also stunning.
If you are going to pay for an event on public roads, this is one to have a go at. As is the Fred, but that is a totally different animal…
I don’t know if you will feel
I don’t know if you will feel any difference. If you forget your water bottle one day, does the ride feel any different? As others have said, the way the more expensive wheels are bit and what they are made from may have more effect in what you feel.
Oh dear, future looks grim for you then, what with the insidious advance of 1x drive trains, you’ll be out of a job soon. Can you retrain as a clutch or a disc brake?I have worked in bike shops for years, as a mech,
Front or rear mech???
I started out as a rear mech, but time served and experience gained, I was allowed to progress to a front mech.
Not sure what the moan earlier about Boardman’s was. I still ride my 10 year old Boardman MTB, it’s served me very well. We can’t all stretch to £3000 plus for a bike…
As for working in the bike shop, try and get your head round the hierarchies. Groupsets all come in different levels, probably easiest to understand Shimano’s and what makes Ultegra cost more and work better than 105 or Claris.
Both great bikes and you’ll
Both great bikes and you’ll get lots of owners of each saying how good they are.
I would ask how much riding in winter do you think you will do? If it isn’t much then you don’t need mudguards, but if you want to keep riding through wet and cold weather, mudguards will save a lot of outlay in maintenance and replacement parts.
My best bike doesn’t have the room to fit mudguards, so after every wet ride I have to clean it off and dry it, but I still have to replace drive train parts and brake components more often than I would like. I don’t know if the Super Six and Emonda can fit mudguards, but if not I would look elsewhere.
I disagree with the OP, and
I disagree with the OP, and agree with wellsprop. I ride a 52-36 with an 11-32 which suits me down to the ground here in Sussex. I can get up Bignor on this (25% in sections) although if I lived in the Lakes or the Alps I’d have a compact at the front.
Boatsie’s gearing is to me what the thread is aimed at; I used to have a 53/29 and a 12/25, and realised that when the hills got steep, all my mates would sit and spin away from me as I stood out the seat and forced those cranks round at about 50 rpm.
Modern 11 speed Ultegra is brilliant for most UK needs.
Have a look at the profile of
Have a look at the profile of the climbs. A lot of proper mountain roads are engineered to have a steady average gradient, usually around 5-8%, that’s why they switchback across the mountain. They will probably have a smoother surface too. If you know it, Boxhill in Surrey is like this (I think the road was built by the Canadian army so tanks and artillery could get up it during the war).
More rural mountain climbs may take the shortest distance approach, and go straight up in places. These stretches where the gradient ramps up and then drops back, can be the hardest to climb as you can’t maintain a steady rhythm. If you’re on one of these, get up the steep parts as best you can and then really make the most of the recovery time when the gradient calms down. Pebble Hill off the A25 near Boxhill does this, a bit of faffing around across the hill at the bottom, then near top it just goes straight up!
Also be aware of the weather. If it is hot, that will sap your strength like nothing else. Take plenty of fluids (mountain roads in Europe often have springs at the side of the road for drinking water). On top of that, it can be 25-30 degrees at the bottom and sometimes only 5 degrees at the top. In my experience that is ok whilst climbing but as soon as you stop you need to get warmer clothes on, and wear them down the hill too.
Descending can be harder work than expected – you look forward to tearing back down again as you grind up, but after 20 minutes a different kind of tiredness can catch you. Your weight will be forward, you’ll be on the drops, your neck will be canted up at an extreme angle, your wrists will hurt, and you may be glad when it is over. If you’re going to be coming back down the road you go up, look out for loose surfaces, holes, tightening corners and try to remember them for the descent. don’t get too close to the guys in front, when it goes wrong going down a mountain things happen very quickly.
Hopefully, they’ll throw
Hopefully, they’ll throw everything they have at him, and he might realise you shouldn’t be able to get away with that behaviour. Glad you’re OK, and I always react exactly like you did, usually to less provocationAndy P – whereabouts in
Andy P – whereabouts in Sussex? I have some suggestions for you! Beautiful Sussex, not far from Steyning Bostal. I don’t go up here enough on the road bike; the problem is it goes on towards the coast, and you don’t really want to go on the A27 or into Worthing from there. I like Ditchling and Devil’s Dyke, and there are plenty of hills, but it is hard to string a route together to get over the 100 feet per mile thing. I’m aiming for 120,000 m of climbing this year so am spending too long thinking about my up to horizontal ratio!
Some that don’t get enough attention – Chantry Lane in Storrington and Bexley Hill near Lodsworth, but the daddy is Bignor Hill. It’s another dead end finishing on the top at the South Downs Way, and the surface is pretty borderline for a road bike, but it has a section at the start of way over 20%.
I have to kick myself about how good an area it is for cycling, if you like both road and mtb. Lots of beautiful fairly quiet country lanes for the road bike, and the Downs are about 5 mins from my house. I’ve never been to a trail centre, and get really annoyed with my mates when they want to load the cars up and drive somewhere for a ride. Why?!
Is if that wasn’t enough, I get to go to the central region of Italy a few times a year, just inland from Pescara. The Blockhaus is there, and that is a proper climb. 3 routes up it too!
A rider deliberately rides his bike at a car in a game of chicken, and we are blaming the driver?? Come on…If you watch the beginning, the driver (who I understand from another source to be a pregnant mum) avoided one rider by swerving to the left, to be confronted with the other rider. She was stationary at the point of impact. Even at 20mph it takes 12 metres to react and brake to a stop.
I agree, the car was hardly moving at all. The little shit was lucky he got away with bruising.
…What caught me out was that I felt I was recovering well in the Alps (food, protein, rest, 10hr sleeps, no grumpiness, having fun) and my performance improved steadily, yet I got steadily worse back in Blighty when doing no biking, and just walking an hour or so a day to keep the body moving…
Might be the definition of recovery that is the problem. From your original post, I didn’t think you got ANY recovery in the Alps? It sounded like you were riding every day, and in that region it will be very hard to do a proper recovery ride. I’ve read some people say a recovery ride shouldn’t go above zone 2; I can’t do that in Sussex, never mind the Alps! It doesn’t take much of a hill for me to go into zone 3, and the big ones are zone 4 at least.
I don’t really do recovery rides any more because of this; I’d rather do nothing for a day or two and then have more options when I do ride again about how hard to go at it.
In May a friend and I went to watch the Giro on the Blockhaus on the Sunday, which was a great day. We had Saturday free, and with only a vague idea of a route, and no reason to rush anywhere, it was one of the best rides I’ve done all year. Beautiful countryside, great food stops, and no family at home worrying we were 10 minutes later back than we had said, it was brilliant. That freedom is not a factor in most of our lives when at home.
Hats off to you first of all!
Hats off to you first of all! Rest and recovery is a big part of training well; it sounds like what you are doing in the Alps is very full on, comparable almost to what the pros do. They are younger than you and have out of this world back up to help manage their performance when not on the bike. Are you going full gas on every ride when you are away? Do you have any flatter rides where you take it easy?
In my experience there is nothing like riding big mountains to improve your performance, but you will need time off after to recover and really see the benefits.
I rode three big climbs this summer, but had 4 days completely off the bike in between. When I got back to the UK I felt fantastic on the bike for a few weeks, but feel like I have slipped back to pre-summer levels already.
You have to be able to see it
You have to be able to see it and ride it don’t you? Can you write off nearly 500 notes if there is something wrong with it?
