By Way Of A Change…

Spring is definitely in the air.. I had a meeting this afternoon that didn’t take as long as I expected and as I was walking home in the sunshine I decided another bike ride might be appropriate..

No sooner said than done.  Within minutes of getting home I was out on my bike.. I headed off on a circuit in the opposite direction to that of yesterday, so a map of the two rides combined would make a figure eight with a bit of a tilt on it.  Yesterdays was was kind of south-east and today was north-west.

I rattled up and even faster average than yesterday, breaking well into the 17 mph average over almost 24 miles.  By way of a change I have linked to the ride data from my Strava page which I have recently started loading rides onto as well as Garmin.

Click anywhere on image for ride data

If you would prefer the Garmin data layout click on THIS

Strava is inclined to make one a much more competitive rider I think as it analyses various segments of a ride and compares your performance with that of other Strava members over the same stretch.  You may feel inclined to try and move yourself up the overall ratings or just be satisfied with personal bests on various segments.

Overall I don’t compare very favourably, as you would expect when the performance of a 70 year old is compared with that of a 20 year old!  I would usually be at best about halfway down ( Or up, depends if you are a cup half full or half empty person! ) the list that may consist of a 100′s or 1000′s of other riders on the same segment.  However, there is a facility to make age group comparisons if you have subscribed to the service.  The oldest age group is 65 plus ( Still young I think !!  :) ) and in that I appear at or near the top, albeit there are probably only about half a dozen people on the list at most usually.  My Mont Ventoux ride in 2011 rated me at 12th in my age group.  I’m not sure that I am tempted to go and try to improve on it though.. !

Being a competitive type of rider it suits me well although it may not be for everybody.  It gives me a target to aim for outside of actually racing.  More like individual time trials I guess aiming for personal bests.

Where Was I ?…

OK, so carrying on from my previous blog, which more or less became devoted to the Olympics I should now try and remember some of the other cycling stuff that has been going on for me.    It appears after checking my Garmin records that since I returned from France at the beginning of July I have done 19 rides amounting to a total of 790.09 miles.  This kind of surprised me, pleasantly I might add because I would have guessed considerably less.  Following is a report generated from my Garmin records:-

Ride Summary, July 9th – August 22nd (Click image for larger view)

There have been three Team MK Saturday rides and one Team MK Wednesday ride in there somewhere, the rest have been solo rides.  I wont bore you with all the details of the solo rides as I might have done had I been keeping more up to date with my postings here.  The rides are pretty much all repeats of routes I have reported on before anyway.

This coming Saturday I am leading the Club ‘C’ group ride to Carlton again.  However the weather forecast is not good apparently, a 99% chance of rain with possibly a thunderstorm thrown in for good measure !  Weather forecasts have been wrong before but in my experience only when they have forecast sunshine.  If they forecast rain its generally what you get.  I will have to show up anyway and I expect one or two other foolhardy riders might join me.  I will be sure to let you know.

After the weekend I will be full on into final preparations for my road trip (car) to Annecy, France with my ride buddy Cyril for a fun packed camping and cycling 8 days around the mountains in the area.  Most of the climbs in the area are not too famous so far as classic climbs are concerned but there are some toughies I can tell you.   There is one classic climb in the area that I hope to add my classic climb list of Alpe d’Huez and Mont Ventoux and that is the Col de Colombier.  Earlier this evening I was mapping out a route ready for loading into my Garmin from the campsite and it involves a total ride of 65 miles with the Colombier right in the middle.  It is an 8 mile climb to 5136 feet but that also means an 8 mile descent afterwards, which is nice !

I think that will then be the last of my mega climbs and I will sit back on my laurels as I reach my 70th year next year and I will stick to more ‘normal’ cycling befitting my years but don’t hold your breath !!

OK folks, This will probably be my last post before I disappear into the tunnel under the channel apart from maybe an account of Saturdays TMK ride if I have time.  When I reappear I hope to regale you all with detailed accounts of adventures, misadventures and mishaps that occur on my trip.  Until then Au Revoir for now as Del boy might say..

Tuesday 14th June, Mont Ventoux

Mont Ventoux

Click Image For More Detail

It seemed I was awake half the night going through all the pros and cons of the following day and my brake situation.  Eventually morning was here and in the light of day everything seemed better.  I did go for a short ride up a long drag I found outside of town and pedalled up that and turned around and came back down, pedalling furiously and braking from around 30mph a dozen or so time and all seemed quiet so I returned to base to prepare for the ride.

I prepared my energy drinks, 2 bottles, one 500ml and one 750ml, 3 energy gels, 2 honey and nut cereal bars and some dextrose tablets.  I took my windproof jacket and arm warmers rolled up in my back pocket for the top of the climb and the descent and my phone/camera.

I then set off to pedal to Bedoin about a 6 mile ride which in itself was quite hilly, hillier than it had seemed in the car last night for sure.

I reached Bedoin and stopped for a photo of the official start line for timing of the climb

Timing Start Line

There were a couple there already and we agreed to take photos with each others cameras at the start.  In conversation the girl said that some men on her campsite, which turned out to be our campsite too, had said any time under 3 hours was good for the climb although he had done it in 1hr 15mins!!

So I was off, the first few kms were pretty easy with a 3 or 4% average gradient with 6% in parts.  Then after about 3km there is a sharp left hairpin and straight down to business.  The climb for first part is all in the trees and winds its way up and the shade from the trees was a blessing.  The gradient now was averaging 8 or 10% with bits of 12 and 15%.  I started riding it like I ride hills at home and attacking the climb wwhich is OK for most UK climbs as they are comparatively short but I kept getting breathless because of the length and intensity and had to make 2 or 3 stops to get my breath back.  I noticed that when I restarted and my heart rate was around the 120’s it was comparatively easy going and as soon as I started winding it up again in to 150’s it was stop time again.  So I hit on a plan of keeping my heart rate in the low 140’s as much as I could by easing back on the pedals and life became much easier if easy is the word?  My legs still had to keep turning and carrying me onward and upward but my stops became far less frequent and it was almost a pleasure.

After about 15 of the 21kms of the ride a road junction is reached at a place called ‘Le Chalet Reynard’ a restaurant and bar and it’s just before this that the trees finish and you are plunged into a kind of lunar landscape of white limestone rocks, very good for reflecting the intense heat!  This is the white stuff that you see around radio station on the top of the mountain from a distance and looks like snow.  If only it was, how nice and cool that would be.

Nearly There

There next comes a final succession of bends with long straights in between them of increasing gradient, and the teasing view of the radio station there all the time, but getting closer all the time.  The first one being around 6% then 8 % then 10 % then 12%. This stretch takes you past the Tommy Simpson Memorial.

Tommy Simpson Memorial

I tipped my hat at the memorial about 1km from the finish as is the custom.  The British cyclist had died of heart failure and exhaustion while making the climb during the Tour de France of 1967.  He had been in his heyday when I was racing as a young man so I felt a special affinity to him.  It was so near and yet so far for him.    Then on to the last but one bend and a gradient of 15% and just for a twist the final hairpin takes you up to around 20% for the final 50 metres or to the very welcome finish line.

Made It

View back down the road

Over the other side

 I had completed the climb in 2hrs 10mins.  A feeling of pride and satisfaction was the first reaction when reaching the top, soon to be followed by that of freezing from the howling wind rushing across the summit at 1912m.  There seems to be plenty of people around willing to use your camera for a photo as long as you do the same for them.

I swallowed the last gulp of my drink, consumed my last cereal bar and donned my arm warmers and jacket and I was off on the descent.  I didn’t record the first couple of miles of the descent as I had omitted to restart my Garmin but rectified that on the move.  The descent was quite thrilling once I had got over the caution of how my brakes would behave as they seemed fine and quiet thankfully.  I still descended with caution give the light of yesterdays experience and you never know when an up coming car is going to take a wide approach to a hairpin.  However there were some good straight’ish bits where I could take my hands off the brake levers for a few seconds, its surprising how arm aching that can be by the bottom of the descent.  I completed the descent in about 25 minutes I think given the error at the start and I wasn’t passed by any cars.

Soon after I reached the bottom I removed my jacket and arm warmers as it was back in the 30’s again and began the pedal back to base again.  First a welcoming cold Kronenberg then several glasses of cold water and I was ready to reflect and bathe in my glory for a while before then bathing in a nice shower.

So that’s all my long held ambitions cycling wise fulfilled now. Alpe d’Huez last year and  Mont Ventoux this year.  I was very lucky to be able to do both and am very grateful for that fact.  Not sure I will set any more targets now I will just continue to enjoy my cycling day by day.

Monday 13th June, Relocation, Roads, Picnic Areas, Litter (lack of it!), Mont Ventoux Survey and an accident

We travelled across to Les Verguettes Camping at Villes-sur-Auzon within a few miles of the start of the recognised ride up Mont Ventoux at Bedoin.  There are 2 other routes up but this is THE one, the one used in the Tour de France when they come this way.  It was a pleasant drive across to here, a lot of it through a valley in the Cervennes national park.  Spectacular scenery and a beautiful sweeping, twisting turning road.

What also made it very pleasant was the fact that it was a Bank Holiday here and ‘Sunday Rules’ apply on the roads.  No trucks are allowed on the roads from midnight to midnight.  Wouldn’t it be great if those rules applied in the UK, I think so anyway.  Having said that, Bank Holiday traffic doesn’t have the same effect as it does at home, there is still very little traffic about.  So all in all a very pleasant journey and we made use of one of the abundant picnic stops on our way.  These are well maintained areas along the roadside usually with a nice pull in off the road with tables and seating provided, usually made of concrete or granite.  They even occur on the autoroutes (motorways) and are always left neat and tidy by the users.  Another notable fact in what is becoming a long list of them is the lack of litter everywhere.  There are litter bins in all the areas but never overflowing and bags of rubbish left by the side.  I think the French have a great deal of pride in their country and countryside and take their litter home with them.

Once we were set up on site we took a drive to Bedoin to do a survey of the ride up Mont Ventoux.  All I really knew of it was what I had read and what I had seen when watching the Tour de France.  Within a few miles of starting the drive up the climb we were confronted by flashing car headlights and waving from cyclists on their way down.  The cause soon became obvious when we saw several cars parked and a group of people all standing around near to one of the Armco barriers just after one of the bends in the road.  We didn’t stop but were able to see a cyclist laying on his back with blood pouring from the top of his head and chin and not moving.  I am guessing he came down too fast and lost his bike on the corner when he came on a sudden sharp bend.  A salutary warning for me about the day after maybe ?

We got to the top and it was absolutely freezing despite it being around 30c down at the base of the climb.  There was also a gale force wing blowing as is usual for there.  We wanted to get out and take some pictures from a viewpoint but it was too cold and we were not dressed for it.  As we turned round to make our exit and headed for the way down a shop was spotted by the co-pilot so we had to park and engage in some retail therapy.  It was actually quite sheltered there so I did manage to get a couple of photo’s, namely the finish line of the climb and a view back down.

We then made our way back down the mountain, most of it following a cyclist on his descent, leaving him plenty of room and not trying to overtake, but as he was doing around 30mph it wasn’t really necessary anyway.  We passed the scene of the accident and there was no evidence left so I am guessing and hoping that all was well.

On the return to the caravan and in the light of our recent experience I set about investigating a noise from the brakes on my bike.  It was kind of harsh rubbing sound when I applied the back brakes at speed and as I would be doing quite a bit of that I thought I should check it out.  I found the brake shoes had little pieces of aluminium ‘grains’ in them that had embedded themselves and were rubbing the rims, aluminium on aluminium.  I was concerned that this was going to wear grooves in my nice new wheels and ruin them, especially with 20km of descending to do at high speeds  I meticulously removed all these bits of metal and flattened the brake surfaces again.  Everything seemed OK and I went for a short ride to see if there was any evidence of noise.  To my relief there wasn’t although it was hardly a test for what was to come.

And so to bed.

2011 Cycling Targets… Hopes and Dreams..

My targets next year consist of training towards riding road races, time trials and hopefully my French odyssey in June will take me within reach of Mont Ventoux and I will attempt a ride up the 22km of the awesome and notorious Tour de France mountain to add to my ‘scalp’ of Alpe d’Huez last May.

View of Mont Ventoux from Mirabel-aux-Baronnies

Summit of Mont Ventoux

On the climb, very near to the lunar landscape that is the summit of the mountain there is a memorial to the British cyclist Tommy Simpson who died while climbing the mountain in the Tour de France way back in 1967.  He was starting his professional career at about the same time as I was starting out in racing as a teenager so he was a kind of hero of mine and it would be good to be able pay my respects at his memorial.  I did actually get to see him race in England once, at the old Herne Hill outdoor cycle track in south London.

Tommy Simpsons memorial, Mont Ventoux

I don’t have any specific races or time trials in mind yet as the race calendars are not out yet.  I havent dont any proper cycling for about 3 weeks now so I guess I will be starting from scratch again so far as fitness is concerned.  I hope to be back out on the bike again in earnest in about 3 days time, once all the Christmas activities are completed with a view to working towards being pretty much race fit by the beginning of April.  That will give me a couple of months racing before going to France for pretty much all of June and resume activities again at the beginning of July.

Such are my hopes and dreams, I hope they can all become a reality and another ambition fulfilled, a few more boxes ticked !