your daily bicycle log

My bike is in such a dreadful state from winter roads! Poor Armstrong sure does suffer at least as much as I do. Have had some really great rides recently though...

February has been a bit rubbish. Travelling and sickness has really kept my riding down. I had president's day off, it was sunny, not too cold and I couldn't get out of bed. Pah.

WIll still rack up 1000km for the year to end of feb but could have been so much more. Back on the bike today I still felt weak and not at my best.

2012 to end of Feb, or whatever, you know what I mean.

12-ish miles to Olympic stadium and back in shorts in freakishly mild February weather on Thurs afternoon, 45 miles yesterday, 23 today, children's party tomorrow.

Just to see what it felt like, did my ride today, 57 miles, at a really chill pace the whole way. Pretty nice, felt like I was floating in some sections, but ... confirmed: I prefer going fast. I even like feeling wasted at the end of the ride.

I'm over 2000 miles for the year so far. All fixed. I'm en-route to destroying my second drivetrain of the year already as well though...

That's incredible

Thanks! I need manufacturers to employ me for real-world endurance testing of components! Anyone who works for KMC, Surly, On-One, Condor, Shimano, EAI, ...? :-)

didn't realize surly had a presence in the uk tbh

The bikes don't really, but you get the fixed-gear cogs, which I like.

Today:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7197/6932612519_3548e3db43_z.jpg

Hey so what stretches do y'all do? My thighs are killing me!

Not sure I know the names of the stretches or how to describe them.

I do love the foam roller which works like a self administered deep tissue massage.

rollers otm

need roller. Perhaps one can DIY such a roller? Also my lower back hurts. I am probably biking wrong. I tend to lean forward.

Someone on twitter was talking about using a section of 4" PVC pipe.

My first 'event' of the year this weekend: a sportive in Sussex which has been mercifully shortened to 65 miles due to roadworks (though, sadly, re-routed up an 18% climb). Yesterday we had unseasonal sunshine and I went out after work and did 22 miles in shorts thinking the world was a wonderful place. Today it's cold and grey and I don't feel like doing anything. The forecast for Sunday is heavy rain all day long and a much lower temperature than we've had all week. I feel aggrieved.

Ugh. As predicted, it rained non-stop and was cold. Four hours or so of misery - I was absolutely soaked all the way through within 10 miles and just had to keep plodding on. I rode it with my brother this year. There were supposed to be about 450 riders, but just over half of them didn't even start as the weather was appalling. Even of the ones who started about 40 didn't finish. I came 32nd out of 183 finishers with my brother in 37th place (we were together until the final climb up Ditchling Beacon). I don't think I've ever had to ride so long in such terrible conditions. I felt like I was covered in mud and had been dumped in a river. I couldn't see where I was going half the time and the descents were terrifying (especially a twisting 15% hill).

sounds awesome excellent job.

i rode up the canyon for the first time this year, hurrah. i sucked, but it was nice. 60 deg and sunny.

down the eastern side of the bay and back. 214km! pretty flat for the most part but fantastic rolling stuff for 15k between mornington and dromana.

kinda got smoked by riding partner who was on new liquigas-spec supersix evo, tho :0

I need to asks you about Melbourne cycling and melbourne in general. I might be out your way soon.

Can I also take a moment to curse Pittsburgh and the number of tyres I been through in the last month or so?

Buying new tyres (Conti GP 4 season after removing gashed Durano pluses) did make me go to a new bike store and after 3 years in Pittsburgh I have now found a legit bike store. It's got Scott, Colnago Cervelo, Merckx Pinarello, Trek and a bunch of other stuff, the guy said they sold 1000 road bikes last year which seems pretty good for a single outlet. Stock was seriously impressive. A bit out of the way for me without a car but a nice incentive to stop by on the return leg of a long ride.

Nearly got dropped by someone thirty years my senior yesterday. Felt better when I found out he's been racing for forty years. Cool old dude wrwa.

got ne-pwned hard on the way up the climb today, but i didn't care too much, it was gorgeous out, shorts and shortsleeves. my road bike had been in a suitcase since september, i put it together this morning. god, i love to ride that bike.

30 miles yesterday, 47 today. Glorious sunshine most of the way today, too.

I should ride today

Today was gorgeous. 500m or so of climbing, warm sunshine, feeling overdressed in 3/4 lengths, although felt the benefit sitting outside the offer shop.

offer - coffee

First race of the season for me today. It was a two-up 25-mile time trial. I was partnered by the strongest rider from my (not very strong) club, who I would expect to beat me by two or three minutes in a solo event. He's faster than me anyway, was riding on a faster (time trial) bike, and already has a few races under his belt this season, so it was an uneven partnership. He dropped me (without realising) on the first uphill section and by the time he realised I was already about 50-100 yards behind. This happened at least twice more during the race - if I didn't manage to get straight onto his wheel on the switchovers I found it extremely difficult to get back up to him. There's a technique to it that I hadn't quite mastered (never having done a two-up before) - when you drop off the front you've actually got to start accelerating *before* the other guy has come past you otherwise they'll just pull away and open up too much of a gap. Also, riding right on someone's wheel when you're both on tri-bars is a bit nervewracking as you can't brake and you're going flat out. We did it in 1:04:25 (about two minutes faster than I've ever managed on my own). I wasn't especially tired at the end but I couldn't have gone any faster.

Also, riding right on someone's wheel when you're both on tri-bars is a bit nervewracking as you can't brake and you're going flat out

ask away ed. what brings you down this way?

Nearly got dropped by someone thirty years my senior yesterday. Felt better when I found out he's been racing for forty years. Cool old dude wrwa.

― lukas, Saturday, March 10, 2012 5:53 PM (Yesterday) [IP: 166.137.141.224] Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol hunt3r be travelin

lol i'm neither that old nor that fast (unless lukas is 14)

joeks, bruv

So apparently I am really quite sunburnt.

haitch, my gf is moving down to Melbourne for work. If it goes well for her I might as well when I've reached a good point here. In any case I'll be visiting soon.

Trying to work out where she's going to live and that.

joeks, bruv

PLUR

lol I had to google that, u raver

bike maintenance for weekend: wash good bike in preparation for sale; wash commuter; try (and fail) to fit commuter with luggage rack; fix gearshifting problems on CX bike; wash and fix slippy rear axle on singlespeed to prep for sale; wash three sets of tyres.

actual riding for weekend: return trip up the street to buy beer, 2km.

i should do this thing you call "bike maintenance." as it is, the zip ties holding my commuter bike's shifter cable broke off, so i just routed the cable through my bottle cage #jankybikes

so yesterday i took my 8 and 6 y/os to the bmx "track" where all the dirtjumper kids go. the best move was the little girl's attempt to ride up one of the tabletops, stalling out, rolling backwards, somehow pivoting 180 on the back wheel and riding it out going the other direction. it was like ballet. i think the barbie princess bike with handlebar streamers and white tires really enhanced the aesthetic.

25-mile time trial this morning. It was cold, but no headwind/tailwind issues for a change so I managed a steady 22mph out and 22mph back. Next weekend I'm hoping to try my first bunch race of the season on the Hillingdon circuit (first return since the painful crash back at the end of last summer).

I had a brief ride on a Barcelona share bike, a Bicing, yesterday. This is inconsequential biking but straight bragging

needs to be some kind of website where you can log the cities in which you've sharebiked so you can #globalbrag

Presumably i could foursquare that kind of activity and be the pope of global sharebikery or whatever.

First road race (well, criterium) of the season, back at the Hillingdon circuit in west London for the first time since my painful crash back at the end of August here. Brilliant sunshine, more like June than March. I positioned myself at the front on the start line (not sure how many riders there were, but I was number 40 so there must have been quite a few), but had an epic fail at trying to clip into my new pedals and sank right back through the field as I spent about 300 metres hopelessly trying to get it the right way up. The eggbeaters which I'd used in the last three seasons didn't have a wrong way up, so I was always able to get away speedily before - this was embarrassing. Anyway, I felt nervous about riding in the middle of the pack, given how I was brought down before by people crashing in front of me, and there were a lot of newbies out there today so I was doubly concerned about the potential to be taken out by some fool. Consequently I tried to stick to one side to give myself an escape route which meant I was far less sheltered from the wind than I could have been. After four or five miles of lurking near the back of the bunch I decided to move up: I ended up going right to the front and towed everyone along for a couple of minutes - just long enough to get to the photographer before being swamped. I then went back to lurking near the back - I've got a bit of a psychological block now, physically I was fine but I just felt this constant terror that someone was going to swerve and bring me down so I just couldn't mix it up near the front. There *were* people switching erratically, and lots of lapped riders getting in the way, so this wasn't a completely groundless fear, but I've got to deal with it if I'm going to actually do anything. I rolled round at the back of the bunch rather than contesting the sprint, average speed 24.7mph.

40 miles of hills (3,000 feet of climbing) yesterday and morning, and 25 miles (1,500) this morning. The sunshine is gorgeous. Winter gloves and jacket to needed. Except maybe very first thing when my fingers got cold.

To = not.

The brief moment I led the bunch along:
http://aephotos.co.uk/hillingdon25mar12-cat4/e154bb232

nice.

rode the loop for the first time this year, 45.7 mi, got dismantled by nice bunch of racers including a woman who let me tag along for a while. strava suffer score: 171/extreme. it felt hard.

First long ride of the year, 40 miles to Reading. The leisurely 3 hour pace promised by my colleague didn't materialise, we did it in 2h 12 + a small handful of stops. A little too much exertion for my liking and current condition, I did a lot of wheel sucking (but also spent a reasonable amount of time pulling along the other guy who was struggling a little).

On strike today, brilliant sunshine and >20C (when it should be 10C at this time of year), drove out to the countryside, lovely 40-mile ride, it feels good to be alive

a photographer friend who has been visiting london this past week keeps posting pics of the clearest, bluest, brightest skies imaginable. i told him his photoshopping is implausible.