your daily bicycle log

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.

Actually a bit sunburnt today - it didn't really occur to me this was physcially possible in Britain in March

https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6115/7021760921_06bd4ac25b_c.jpg

this was monday

It has been properly blazing hot and beautiful here for a week at least - Armstrong is in a rejuvenated phase and we've done 250 miles in the last 5 days...

The heatwave finally ended yesterday. Did my second road race of the season, this time at Hog Hill. The hill was killing me - every lap I lost ground on the climb and had to desperately chase back on. Fortunately there are some tight bends where things often get bunched up so I managed to fly through the corners and sprint back on (repeatedly). It was an hour's race and from about 10 minutes in until about two laps to go I was convinced I was about to get permanently dropped, but somehow I managed to survive to the end. Absolutely nothing left for the final sprint up the hill so I came 23rd out of the 27 left in the bunch. Still, that's only the second time ever I've managed to finish in the bunch on that circuit.

3000 fixed-gear miles in 3 months was celebrated today in the midst of a 65-ish mile jaunt with my best cycling buddy - long may the great riding and monster miles continue as the year progresses!

Krakow, I can't even begin to imagine that.

Here's a short video of my race at Hog Hill. I can generally be seen huffing my way round at or very near the back of the pack, the exception being the second time up the hill when I'm near the front (but in reality had started the hill in first place then rapidly sunk backwards while someone shouted 'hold your position' at me - as if I was just choosing to go backwards for a laugh).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMWtvRrGvic&feature=relmfu

The weather's gone mad - last week of March felt like mid-June, first week of April and half the country got covered in snow. No snow down here, but it was sub-zero in London when I got up this morning. Fortunately it had warmed up a bit by the time I raced this afternoon. Back at Hog Hill again, this time against 3rd cats. I bit the bullet and flung myself back into the thick of it this week (instead of lurking near the back trying to avoid crashes), burying myself in the middle of the bunch, swooping round downhill bends at nearly 30mph just telling myself 'don't touch the brakes - trust everyone else'. I was enjoying it, instead of just being nervous. Annoyingly, about a third of the way through the race it got a bit strung out and somebody 7 or 8 riders ahead of me let a gap open. By the time I'd forced my way up the gap was unbridgeable. I ended riding round in a second group which swelled to about 11 or 12. I stopped with two laps left as the leaders were closing in on us (to lap us) - they caught my group on the final lap with about half a mile to go, which could have been messy.

whoa braggin i rode mt falcon mtb climb in the middle ring the whole way today (32/32), something ive not done probly in 10 yrs, and it didn't even feel hard. 6+ minutes slower than the old days, but still.

wheeee!
http://ukcyclesport.com/index.php?option=com_jphoto&view=image&id=127728:229&Itemid=31

nice guys

been sick and off the bike for a week, argh. going to take a v short spin this evening and see how it goes.

continuing to follow goal of one mtb ride/week. perfect, cool, 50 degree day for a long sloggy singletrack climb. i've had a hard time getting used to technical uphills on the dual sus- the bike is so damn tall, for one thing. otoh, the higher bb makes clearance and pedal strike issues much better.

<iframe height='405' width='590' frameborder='0' allowtransparency='true' scrolling='no' src='http://app.strava.com/runs/6728224/embed/ca61dbad234d5e0f4753abe990aca4fa3e282020'>;</iframe>

sorta regret not going 29er, with all the rock gardens around here i'm sure the bigger wheel would be better rolling.

(sorry i was pretty sure that wouldnt work but was curious)

oh man that sucks about having an ish with your DUAL SUSPENSION BIKE

LAWYERS

(can't wait to be the fattest doctor mantis, gonna bottleneck everyone while i wheeze on a g-d moots)

flossin my huffy 2012

ask me about todays strava kom

ima go get smashed on red wine and hope my household dont care

when mootsed, send pix doc

will do(c)

so about that KOM

It happened lol

picked up nu bike from shop and rode it home (30km) in blazing autumn sunshine

...then went to pub to watch football, haw

to stop the slightly knackered bracket for the light on the commuter loosening up over bumps, have applied 'shim' ...made from blu-tac. #subparmaintenanceskills

arnet u sposed to post a pic of nubike already and what is blutac?

blu-tac is 'the original re-usable adhesive!

http://i42.tinypic.com/2rf52bk.jpg

not in shot: pie plate that i haven't taken off rear wheel yet, haw

I do like the look of the Giants.

me too. i dreamt last night that i had bought a rabo strip giant, i dunno why.

does that have a fixed seat mast instead of seatpost?

i know that it should go on "bikes u lust" thread, but another hot giant- 22 lbs dual 9er?!

http://www.bikemag.com/files/2012/04/anthemx29advan.jpg

er
http://www.bikemag.com/files/2012/04/anthemx29advan.jpg

regular seat pisr hunt3r - aero shape tho. advanced sl has ISP.

'seat pisr', rather sausage-fingered of me

I'm supposed to be doing a 42-mile road race tomorrow (my first race on the open road and >25 miles since last June). My build up has been fairly hopeless: in the 7 days up to yesterday I managed a grand total of 9 miles. First of all I had a cold / sore throat / cough. Then I picked up conjunctivitis off my daughter. I still foolishly set off for a ride last Sunday morning wearing normal glasses (usually I have contact lenses), but I could feel my eyes filling up with goo, it was only 2C and very windy, and I felt like shit, so fortunately common sense kicked in after about 20 minutes and I came home again.

On top of all that I had to go to a specialist dental hospital to have a tooth removed earlier this week. I'm still a bit sore and swollen and I've spent the week living off a diet of paracetamol, eye drops, cough medicine and salt water rinses. However, I managed to get out yesterday and ride 32 miles just before the thunderstorms hit. There's heavy rain forecast for tomorrow and all logic is telling me not to bother with the race, but at the moment I'm still planning to do it.

sounds like your body is under enough stress. even if you've paid, i say don't do it.

argh the eye goo story is so nastee!

nice spin out in the hills this morning w/ two friends-of-friends, couple of short but steep bits, then the kinglake hill. not too far, still adjusting to new saddle a bit.

Just cycled the London marathon, closed roads mmmmmmmm

Is that allowed?

I ignored common sense and did the race this morning. Fortunately the rain held off and I didn't feel ill (though I did suffer pre-race insomnia and didn't get much sleep last night). I managed to stay in the bunch for about 19 miles then started to cramp up a little bit and sunk off the back - I don't know how it's possible to get cramp after less than an hour. The pace wasn't too fast (I was averaging 23.1mph when I was dropped, but that includes the neutralised zone) but I just haven't got the speed to go with the surges - I was dropped on a flat section and couldn't chase back on on a descent even getting out of the saddle and sprinting. Went for a ride afterwards to get some miles in, did 38 miles at 20.2mph (including the race).

Is that allowed?

weeeeeeeeeellllll probably not. We never got told to get off the course by a policeman though.....

We were well ahead of the race - set off before they started closing the roads at 7am, but by the end some marshalls were getting a little more nervous. We did end up sprinting (as much as I can) down an empty embankment and Mall (spectators already there cheering us), including crossing the actual marathon finish line.

We were waiting for the 6th member of our group (turns out he got sent off course by a marshall in a military uniform..) when a nice lady came up and asked "erm, how did you get here in this footprint [footprint? what?] as it's my job to ensure this is a sterile area - we do have visitors here including royalty" to which fellow rider Andrij replied "well, we started in Blackheath a couple of hours ago" and Jurek made things a lot worse with "all your marshals were very friendly and accommodating..."

"Please guys, go up that road and get out the area" OK, bye......

on 'training ride' (lol) at the boulie. relaxed pace on first lap, turn it up a bit on last climb. loop round for lap two, first long climb and i can hear someone puffing pretty hard. he creeps past with no ackno ohwledgement. it's on! i latch onto his wheel ande off a couple of times to avoid half-wheeling. i roll off the pace on the downhill 'bike lane' section (there's been some head-ons here in rhe past; i think it's prudent) and he gets a gap. over last rise, stop to clip on tail-light at halfway point, and the chase begins. sight him on second downhill, rail through fast dipping left-hander that's been freshly resurfaced, stomp past on the next rise on the big ring. not troubled by my pursuer for the rest of the lap. satisfaction!

Eye infection came back. Endless rain fell endlessly. Yesterday was my day off. Sat inside waiting for the rain to stop. The rain didn't stop. Went out in the afternoon (wearing glasses again as contact lenses are impossible at the moment). Got very wet and muddy. Took my frustration out by doing hill reps. Chain inexplicably fell off just quarter of a mile from home. Got very oily. Today sat inside and watched the endless rain falling endlessly.

Respect.

big tailwind allowed me my best time up the canyon in like 3 years. i know it's all a lie, but i felt so fast.

Took my frustration out by doing hill reps.

Pervert.

Four thousand fixed-gear miles in four months completed today!

Pervert