your daily bicycle log

lolz! yah ok.

the thing i hate is the awful food, the bars and the gels. they just make me feel bad. i want to eat them to get energy but i don't because they're awful. (not that any wonderfood could have restored my leg muscles tbh.)

Well done

way to stick in there ledge!

only one fuel stop to Whitstable = bacon rolls at 3.30am, although there always seem to be cakes going around at catch-up stops. I am really looking forward to it, even though weather could get interesting.

Haven't you already done that?

it's a monthly thing, they did Southend this Friday just gone. Next years' look really good, one run to Newhaven and thence to Dieppe in the middle of the TdF particularly appeals, also an out of London special in april - Manchester to Blackpool via Blackburn, which could sort the men from the boys.

Rode a gran freddo century out of Hood River, Oregon today. This place is like a cycling theme park. The first 40 miles were super fun rolling hills on what were pretty car-less roads. At one point we climbed up to a point overlooking the Columbia river, and then had 2 miles of really fun switch-back descents. At the 40 mile mark (which I made at 11am) they held everybody until 11:30am and then had a mass-start time trial (we all had timing chips velcroed to our ankles) up the big climb of the day. The climb was 20 miles up the side of Mount Hood. None of it was particularly steep (mostly under 6%) but it was a loooong straight grind. Very mentally taxing to me. It was lightly sprinkling at the top (4500 ft up) which made the first part of the 25 mile descent off the mountain kind of scary on wet twisty roads. Ended up doing the 100 miles in 6:05 on the bike, 7:24 overall. 7500 ft of climbing. I was hoping to do the climb with a little more aplomb. It gives me a goal to work on, I guess.

strava record of the ride: http://www.strava.com/rides/192115#

did 24mi w/shasta blasta on friday and ~50 today. most i've ever done. from fruitvale to richmond and back along water. mostly on bike path. was a great ride and although i can feel my knee, it didn't give me shooting pain like the last few miles of the 35mi that i did a month or 2 ago.

New gearing 46x18, just slightly higher than my old 48x19, but I can definitely feel the difference.

Spent a great week with Th Boris bikes in London. Bike share schemes rock.

I've only done one sportive this year, way back at the start of March, and haven't really done any long rides since. I'm tempted to do the upcoming Evans Ride It event starting from their HQ in Crawley.

get in quick and you can ride to Whitstable with us ;)

Night riding is a peversion, like fixed wheels or tricycles.

night rides on my fixie trike, yyyyeeeeeeeeeeeaaaahhhh

I'm sort of tempted to take the fixie to Whitstable this time, but I'm sure I'll wise up at some point.

There is an upright trike doing the run apparently (and 110 people on the list!)

110 people! That's how it ends up being 8 hours, Tom :)

I think I am looking forward to the bacon sarnies most of all.

Today, 17 miles around the chilterns, mostly off-road but with some fearsome long and steep road climbs thrown in. A fair bit of mud-slogging, and a handful of disturbingly fast farm-track downhills with rocks or mud or slidy chalk or gullies or all four.

Did my last race of the season this morning, so when I got home it was time for the Grand Swapping Over Of The Bikes. The lightweight racer has been consigned to the back stairs, it's time to bring out THE HEAVY BIKE for winter.

Sodding rear derailleur lever (I think) has broken/jammed on my MTB. It could be a tiny tweak, or, well, I dunno, as I don't understand MTB-style levers at all.

Take it to a shop. Under no circumstances try to fix it yourself. Down that path lies madness.

bring out THE HEAVY BIKE

Training kick?

(and yes, I shall. Or get ledge to fix it)

ha! maybe i know a thing or two... but i've also destroyed a thing or two. wouldn't know where to begin with a jamemd lever either. best leave this one to the professionals.

i discovered yesterday my mtb wheels seem to be somewhat egg-shaped. i guess this happened in the alps, although i didn't notice when i took it out last week. i think it only became apparent when i was riding on the road.

50mi from hastings to red wing.

so so beautiful.

i remember riding northfield to red wing to trempeleau, wi, and that was some gorgeous shit.

it was really great, and basically qualifies as my first "real" road ride (i've done long-ish rides around mpls but they've never exceeded ~20 miles, and the longest alleycats i've done have been in the mid 30s). this clocked at ~50mi total, which is def the longest i've ever done (my gps said 46 but it ran out of batteries about 13 minutes from the finish). i'm tired but not cashed, which is pretty encouraging, tbh.

http://j.mp/bOjdB9

highlight was jammin down the cannon valley trail, which was technically closed (there's been flooding there recently, and there was a 10 feet gap in the pavement where it had totally washed out. easy to scamper across.) we had the whole thing to ourselves, cruising in early evening light, along a river, no road for miles, totally radical.

and my bro only had two diabetic emergencies, so that's cool

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4146/5049272046_54f5ab4635.jpg

gbx is cannon valley trail the one with the loooongass tunnel, or is that in wisc? i rode cannon valley, but also one a day or so later in wisc.

hit the feared 14% yarra st yesterday afternoon. did it twice, that was enough for one day. max hr 203bpm! o_O

The raddest guy sat in with our group ride today. He was mid 20's and looked like was in really good shape (tall, thin) and was riding a pretty o.k. Allez. BUT he was wearing a primal jersey made to look like a pinstripe tuxedo jacket with tie and he had a full camelback with the tube going directly into his mouth. He also had some really wierd euro looking sunglasses, that looked like those big gucci ones girls on the Jersey Shore show wear. At the bottom of every incline he would go sprinting off the front and then spectacularly blow up within 200 meters and end up at the very very back of the pack. Mind you, this is the first day of our structured winter training ride and we're all supposed to be riding at 70% HR max. What an exclusive club I'm a part of...

Also I nearly got backed into by a horse that got spooked while we were passing it quickly on a downhill over pretty bad pavement.

Down to Dorset this weekend. We were promised unseasonal sun and a mini-heatwave for the weekend so I packed my shorts and headed off to further west than usual for a ride around the area near Cerne Abbas (home of the priapic giant). Strangely the sun didn't materialise and the whole area was shrouded in mist with a powerful wind from east-to-west. I'd brought my camera with me for some cozen-style shots of the hills, but visibility was rubbish so I didn't use it.

It's really hilly round there. Within the first quarter of a mile I began a 90m (vertically) climb with 13% sections. I'd climbed more than 200m before going descending 115m in a short and very steep (17%) section into Cerne Abbas. Then it was straight back up another brute (95m, max 18%) and then down another on the other side. My average speed was hopelessly slow, because the climbs were really slow and the descents weren't fast: the roads are just too narrow and twisting (and at this time of year too gritty / muddy / covered in leaves) to descend at speed. Instead I normally have my brakes on all the way down. As the road straightened out a bit I freewheeled up to about 30mph only to encounter a ford about three inches deep in water at the bottom. And then it was straight back up another hill (117m, 17%).

I'd already done 415 metres (1,361 feet) of climbing (and over 200m of descending), much of it at crazy gradients, in less than 10 miles. Then I went round a ridge, then did another huge and steep descent (-190m, touching 14%), this time with a section where I could open up and enjoy it so I got up to 43.4mph. Then a sharp right and up the final nasty climb (155m, 14%), before a relatively modest descent (only 8%), but on a straight road with a white line down the middle separating the two directions, so I gave it everything and set a new PB for top speed (46.0 mph). I got hit by a powerful gust from the crosswind and wobbled, but fortunately didn't come off (although my heart nearly stopped).

Only a 27-mile ride, but there was 696 metres (2,283 feet) of climbing so a pretty good workout. The sun finally broke through about an hour after the ride.

I joined a team (P1/2&M1/2/3) for next year and today was our first "getting to know you~" 65 mile group ride. I had my bike in the shop yesterday while everybody else was out doing 60-100 mile tempo/gran fondo/climbing rides so I knew I had a shot to put in a decent showing. When the road turned up an incline I'd take the front 1-3 wheels but otherwise I was just trying to get to know the people riding next to me. Not much to report to y'all about but there was a little sprint at the midpoint of the ride and I don't have a sprint but what do you know, I found myself at (aka hijacked) the back of a lead out train and much to the surprise of the P1 sprinter that was being led out, I managed to go around him and nip him and the town limit sign. Not sure how good of form that was but I'll take it. Some pretty strong 60 second numbers for me, esp as I've really cut down on the miles/effort late:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4127/5068883015_a3a1048ea0_b.jpg

it's national 'ride 2 work' day here. i always ride to work (in regular clothing, on singlespeed) so to make it a bit more special i PRD'd it up on the good bike w/ full kit including shoe covers!

shasta it looks like you coasted there a coupla times.

just kidding, thats completely mental wattage! dont waste your fitness go hammer some ppl in cx.

thats completely mental wattage!

dude for real

First ride on the new frame this morning after the trials of getting the final components. Unfortunately glow in the dark bar tape is not as awesome as I had hoped (is anything glow in the dark ever, cf. glow in the dark frisbees. I am loving the investment in under tape gel strips on the drops.

Nice ride though, i put the levers a little too far forward I think but flipping the stem should fix that.

no biking for this guy lately, since I gotta be in st Paul by 0600 every morning. tempted to try biking once tho, but can't decide if it would be rad or stupid (sleep is important)

pics ed

i havent done a proper ride i.e non commute, in weeks. once marathon is done, i plan to ride a few times for real if the weather holds.

since we got passes for eldora lols this year, i'll have unlimited xc skiing, so im looking forward to that this year. i suppose this is where people in mpls remark 'who would _pay_ to xc ski?'

I ran into the back of a minicab last night, thankfully at walking pace, though I still endo-d and ended up very gracefully collapsing against the car and onto the ground. Luckily there was no more than a rubber mark on the bumper - was all my fault, I'd been distracted by a motorbike while moving slowly through traffic. Bit shaken up afterwards, though - I sometimes wonder if these minor scares are a good thing that keep you honest rather than cocky on the road?

u are so lucky. this just recently happened to a friend of mine with a brand new, super expensive bike)

quoted from here http://www.allhailtheblackmarket.com/2010/09/when_the_wheels_come_off_the_w.html

http://www.allhailtheblackmarket.com/fpssmashedvanilla.jpg

http://www.allhailtheblackmarket.com/fpssmashedcab.jpg

Here's some images from my accident yesterday. I'm so fortunate that I'm able to type this note to you today. You often advocate wearing a helmet when you ride each and every time you get on your bike. If I had not worn my Giro helmet the outcome could have been much worse.

In short as I was finishing a road ride out to Point Reyes Station with Skinny Bee, Fashion Dave and Scott who was flying AHTBM colors when taxi cab preformed a 3 point turn into a blind driveway ahead of me and reversed right out into the middle of the road leaving me with the following images. I was launched from my road bike through the rear window of the taxicab head first.

I am a very lucky man to come away from this accident with only an index finger that looks like it was visited with repeated blows of a hammer. In addition to wearing my helmet I had cycling glassed on and one of Sacha's unicorn hats. Perhaps the unspoken magic of the unicorn saw me through this event.

Ouch. That must have been terrifying.

ouchie.

So Mark and I set out for a ride round town today, about a mile from home and we're freewheeling down a pretty steep hill. Mark is in front and has a car in front of him, speed around 10 mph, maybe 14 or so at most. I tell Mark to watch out as the hill can be a bit dodgy, do a shoulder check and then look round to see Mark piling in to the back of the car he was following who had stopped suddenly. I tried to go down the gap between car and pavement while slamming on the anchors, unfortunately Mark is in the way.......

I hit him and next thing I know I'm bouncing along the road on my front and smacking my chin into the ground.

Sum total of damages we've found so far:

Mark
swollen knee
road rash on arm and an abrasion on hip
dodgy muscle on right leg
rip in jersey
not sure of any damage to bike as yet.

Me
really sore knee and hamstring (right)
very sore jaw (no chipped teeth fortunately)
picked some gravel out of my elbow's road rash
sprained thumb
both wheels out of true - chunk out of rear rim
rear gear cable is bollocksed
couple of chunks out of the saddle

and finally and most importantly
DIRTY GREAT CRACK IN HELMET - WEAR A HELMET PEOPLE!

oh, and a couple of whopping great holes in my lovely rapha merino long sleeved jersey, bollocks

Ouch again. You want to be careful riding with Mark, it seems he habitually rides into cars.

I did 34 miles today. It poured with rain, but only for about 15 minutes, and the next hour was like being in a big cold hair dryer so I dried off.

It must be going around (crashing, that is). It was damp this morning (no real rain, but wet roads) and a guy in front and to the left of me rode onto the painted center line on a downhill left turn and lost all traction and slid out. The dude + bike made it all the way across the lane and off the shoulder of the road (no curbs, dirt/leaves), the guy sliding face down on the left side of his helmet the whole time. Amazingly, he got no scrapes on his face at all, I guess he rode out the slide on his helmet the whole way. I had to lock up and ride in the dirt on the side of the road to avoid him. Pretty exciting.

BTW, Mark/'Porkpie', I don't know if you ever look at ILM nowadays, but you might want to vote in this poll:
VOTING THREAD for ILM's Alltime Best Shoegaze / Dream Pop / Post-rock TRACKS poll