February's survey

It looks like we can't make our mind up on this topic. Some of us check their tyres on a regular weekly basis while others don't seem to bother at all.
When we were out on the ride today, we had our only puncture 2 minutes after passing a hedge trimming tractor, that left debris strewn across the highway. If you don't even bother to check your tyres when this happens, then you will suffer the consequences.

viernes

Today was the warmest day so far. We met kandani at 3.30 ,it was still very warm and they teased Jane for having bare legs and arms because for them it was still muy frio :) .We set out in a very steady, even slow manner. We assumed it was tranquilo because there is a race at Can Trull on Sunday. But as soon as we hit the off - road, the pace jumped way up.

Werner was leading again, and was very excited because he’d discovered a new climb - Casa Rojo. Werner has an amazing knowledge of la isla’s trails, so for him to find a new one is astounding. I rode alongside him and he turned to me very excited and said in his excellent German spanglish “Ya, ya I find nuevo climb, mucho subida, mas duro mas strong, si, si…20 percents! ….ya”

The climb of Casa Rojo turned out to be one of the many utility access roads. One of the companies like telefonica or the electricity build something on top of the hills and cut a rough access road up one side and often down the other side. The rain and baking sun soon turn these into very rough tracks with nice loose gravely hairpins. Me and Jane crest in the front group and we wait for the others. Once regrouped someone shouts “attaque, attaque!” and we disappear in a cloud of dust down the other side, sliding and giggling on the loose bends :)After a hard blast through twisty rocky caminos we get to Can Trull (pron.troy)

Can Trull is restaurant and banqueting hall set up by Art, a nice chap we met a few months ago. He does all sorts of functons and weddings here. But, also his sons are bikers and he’s a bike fanatic! So, he has built and crammed a five km mtb course into the grounds :) It’s fantastic, it twists and turns, lots of steep drop ins and the best and scariest bits are the wooden ramps. These are like decking but are built to cross ditches and some run through trees……..excellent I meet Art out on the course and he tells me that they hosted a round of the Copa Catalana ,their version of the national series, last October.

ibiza ride

Kandani training ride:

This afternoon we rode over to Santa Eularia to go out with the guys from Kandani on their Wednesday afternoon mtb training ride. Ten of us set out through the deserted siesta time streets of  Santa Eularia, up to the rotunda and down the ‘Roman Singletrack’ -  the romans were busy here some time ago and built a beautiful harbour and bridge. Not much has been done to it since they left, so it makes good rocky mtb riding J. 

Everyone was a bit frisky tonight and we were flying through the singletrack. Werner had some special neuvo caminos for us. He’d been out earlier in the day cutting back bushes and branches on some excellent steep, rocky  hanging off the back of the saddle stuff……big grins and muy biens all around…..yay!p 

After about an hour and a half of  ups and downs and ins and outs of the trees, the pace picked up for the blast back toward home.  This was excellent, lined out like a road race on rutted, pot holed tracks. It’s times like this when you learn that loose gravel has so much more grip than you think  :-o

On the road into Santa Eularia people gradually pulled off the group and at the shop Pascual asked if we were up for more on Friday.  Cool!

tuesday mtb

No Tuesday ride with Roger this week, I’ve had to go to Ibiza for a week to put some steady, sunny km’s in :)

Today we decided to ride out to ruta tres in the west of the island toward San Antonio.  San Antonio is a beautiful place given a bad name by the British press ( lol my spell check just offered me Brutish Press :) )

It’s a lumpy 45 minute ride on back roads to get to Santa Gertrudis where the route starts.  Ruta Tres is a beautiful ride taking in lots of off road wooded caminos and pistas. Then dropping almost into San Antonio we come back through the flat farm lands  until we hit the sharp rocky climbs back up to Santa Gertrudis.  Jane managed to get the best line on the last rocky climb, I just couldn’t get past and she took the Santa Gertrudis prime. :-o  We took café and coca cola in la plaza de Iglesia. 

A good hard four hours on the bike.

Tomorrow we ride with the local club ride at Santa Eularia.

Third Overall for Paul

Paul Alderson consistent results throughout the winter months saw him take third overall in the E/1/2/3 category of the Imperial RT Winter Series at Hillingdon Circiut. Talking after the result which saw him move up to a 2nd Cat he said he wanted to get his 1st Cat licence by the end of the year and then mabe Elite after that, not a bad ambition for a man who just joined the over 40's. Go Paul!

Picture by Jonathon Bentman

A Sun day on Saturday

We had the biggest group out this year on the A group ride yesterday. The clear sky meant the sun could warm us as we headed over the North Downs and south to Balcombe tearoom. With the worst of the bad weather behind us, talk at the teastop was of the events we were entering in the summer, such as the Dave Lloyd Mega challenge and the Highclere castle event.

Tour of California - Stage 5

I stayed up to watch the 5th stage, with the sprint going to Mark Cavandish.
I was wondering if they think he is a bit of a cowboy because on the podium they gave him a hat to wear!

Mallorca road report

Set out below is an email I received from a mate ,Dave Ward ,this morning who is currently riding in Mallorca.Dave is a member of Portsmouth North End who Mark Williams and I met on the Tour des Cols last summer.
Dave has the strange habit of training by ,on the days he comes into his shop in Londonfrom his home in Southsea ,of getting up at about 4.30am and riding ,even in the dark about 50 miles over the South Downs and getting the train around Haslemere .That might explain how he managed to come second last year in the South Downs Sportif and ride Mark and me into the ground in the Alps.
Personally I will stick with the lie in.

I thought his report on the state of the roads might be interesting to those going on the club trip to Mallorca.


nick a


Subject: mallorca trainingFANTASTIC,NO ICE OR SNOW.First day35 mile lovely ride,1800 ft climbing bit of a shock to my system being a stone over weight,not as shocking as being blown off the road by 30 pro riders passing me on a 10% climb doing 18 miles an hour.Second day98 miles killer ride,6000 ft climbing beautiful mountains in the tramunta national park ,I did n,t intend doing this milege,they have had a really bad winter here ,high winds & snow & rain,my planned route up to lluc from the tennis centre just outside palma,then left to soller and back was thwarted because the road has been washed away had to turn back & headed to pollensa in the north,fantastic desent followed by a fairly flat head down power back to palma,made no less easy by bloody germans challenging me all the time.todayan easier day watching Oliver play tennis this morning and a ride over col soller to soller and back this afternoon 35miles.Have you rode here before guys? the roads are some of the best I have seen,veiws are stunning,the mountains are not that high,highest road is 1800ft but you climb for average 5miles.I don,t think the road will be open by april nick so check it out.The detour down from lluc-llosetta-alaro-sant maria-bunyola-then up col soller and down to soller-deia.the road is out between lluc and sa collobra you maybe able to access the wonderful descent down to sa collobra from the soller side.three more days of riding for me here,just what I needed to kick start my trainingperfect assos weather dry sunny coldDavid

Queen Victoria - Tough cookie

http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/photo?prov=getty&slug=aaeb5c1ab36181e299fe2bfd02f9c43c-getty-84532198bl002_uci_track_wor#photoViewer=urn%3Anewsml%3Asports.yahoo%2Cgetty%3A20050301%3Asc%2Cphoto%2Caaeb5c1ab36181e299fe2bfd02f9c43c-getty-84532198bl002_uci_track_wor%3A1

an apology

I have removed the thread 'Fatwa on Richard'

To put things straight - There never was any fatwa on Richard and nothing more than a bit of fun was intended - I was relating some tea shop banter.

I apologise whole heartedly to Richard and I'm sorry for any distress caused.

Tour of California

If you're at a loose end then why not catch up with the TOC.
California is 8hrs behind us here so stages start around 8pm.

http://tracker.amgentourofcalifornia.com/

Group A ride to Hindhead

When we arrived at Cobham this morning we weren't sure if we would make it all the way to our desination after freezing overnight temperatures.
So here is my video of how the A group got on. A couple of punctures along the way but some lovely sunny skys & quaint little lanes.

Saturday mtb

As on Tuesday I arranged to meet Roger at the bottom of Chalkpit Lane, the trails were much drier and faster. So, what took me 45 minutes on Tuesday took 30 minutes today. I rolled down the road to meet them and was surprised to see a group of seven plus Roger coming up the road.

The ride up Chalkpit lane helped to assess ability and fitness. It's a slight uphill drag with some sticky bits and the odd root. And everybody made it! :) That was probably the toughest bit of the ride.

I noticed that my front tyre was a bit soft so I stopped to fix it with Ken, this took ages I found three thorns embedded in the rubber. I rarely get punctures, so it was annoying. Once we'd got going again we chased pretty quickly only to find Roger waiting for us at the end of Admirals road three of the others had punctures too :/ Some of the hedges had been trimmed and the thorns were in the puddles on Admiral's lane. Luckily we'd skirted the edge of the field this time.

All fixed we set off and took the next right over a couple of lumps that had some people walking. I tend to forget that I run a 34-22 as my granny gear :) A bit of a ride around Polesden Lacey, Down the A25 cyclepath for a stretch then over Hawkshead to Bockett's Farm for Tea.

After tea was pretty much straight home back over to Chalkpit and downhill all the way back.

I've got the 'Winter (Turbo) Blues'

Alan & I managed a couple of rides on the 'fixed' over the Xmas period, we went out on Xmas morning, me thinking for a lap of the park with nowt but a bottle of water and ended up at Windsor watching the police guards and the tourists. It was a plesant enough ride but the traffic was getting bad as we headed home for lunch with 60 miles in our legs

Old style


New style

Rode along the old Hampton and Thorpe '10' courses we both first started racing on back in the 70's, a strange ride down memory lane, Alan on his 'new' Pearson Touche and me on an old Allin probably got raced along these very roads



Just passed my 20th turbo session of the winter (since November) and the signs are there that I'm going a bit stir crazy. It's roughly two a week and although I only do an hour that last few minutes is beginning to wear a bit thin. I know it's all the rage and with the current patterns of weather making road riding nigh on impossible it's the only way to make a bit of effort (safely). I have it set up at work which is a bit annoying when you want to do a spontaneous session between Corrie and Eastenders, thankfully I've not had the urge yet and I feel that's the way it will stay at a safe distance Last night I had to curtail my session to 5 minutes as I had my very first turbo puncture, not prepared to change it I did a bit of stretching and came home, I didn't feel up to it anyway

Instrument of torture!
Special adaption unit

Went up to Manchester for LVRC track session the first Saturday of the year, trouble was it was between 7-11 in the evening so not back to Leicester until after one o'clock and I was so knackered I could only manage two hours on the road the next day

I got in a couple of tough back to back long rides mid January when Fiona & I went over to Essex, I rode most of the way (to Harlow) 100 miles and then 80 miles the next day with the Shaftsbury CC, only three others turned up and we battered ourselves in the wind and rain and I thought to myself "What am I doing here?" I knew the signs were not good as we rode over to the meeting point at Mountnessing so as we waited for the last man to turn up I took my food out of their (plastic) bags and put them inside my overshoes, it held off the rain for the first hour, but that was all. We all had mudguards and fought all day to stay off the back wheel of the person who didn't have the 'extra' mud flap



I took a weekend off at the end of January to visit friends in Devon and although I took my bike I only went out for a cursory two hours on the Saturday as my heart was not in it. I do not get on with the hills in winter and It didn't help matters that it was windy as well. After falling off five times in December and January I have managed to avoid doing so in the recent cold snap by staying on the main roads which is not pleasant but it just has to be done and I have not missed any of my twice weekly long rides but as the need for speed approaches a bit of better weather please!

STOP PRESS After quitting yesterdays turbo session I was full of riding on the way to work this morning, managed a magnificent 19 mph on my 72" over the wet but thankfully not icy roads, only the second time I've ridden to work in the last 10 days. Only downside was my pedal falling apart at the end of the road, I'd changed the bearing yesterday and not put it back together correctly Doh! Looking forward to the weekend, Yipeeeeeeee!

Tuesday mtb

The great flood!

This year has been soooo exciting for off road riding!

First the fantastic dry cold weather of early January, where the trails were as dry as summer. Then the most excellent snow of the past week or so. And now ....... the great floods.

The top pic' shows some snowdrops at the bridge in Leatherhead. The lake in the background is actually the river in spate.

Today me and Roger set out to plan the route for Saturday's mtb ride. It had rained pretty much all day yesterday and then through most of the night. We arranged to meet at Chalkpit lane around 10 ish. I decided to go out via Ranmore and down Hogpen lane. I guessed it might be wet, but Hogpen Lane was still pretty much all compressed hard snow and very slippery! Lower down there was a stream running through the middle of the snow and this was the safest option.

Saturday's ride will be around Polesden Lacey - most of the trails were not too bad and any big wet patches are easily avoidable. As we dropped down to cross the A24 we could see that most of the surrounding fields were submerged. At Leatherhead where we take the Hawkshead trail the water was touching the underside of the bridge! Roger fixed a puncture here whilst I took some pics of the flooding and the snowdrops!!

We took tea and toast at Bockett's Farm and headed back via some nice singletrack.

Saturday 9 am at Cobham - see you there :)

Sunday mtb

After the heavy snows of earlier in the week, we didn't know what to expect on the trails this weekend. Joining us today for his first ride since his disastrous attempt at the Trans Wales last year is Parky! - The SWRC's blog meister.

Heading off-road the slippery snow from earlier in the week had been replaced by the more usual slippery mud :)

As we progressed across the Roughs some areas were, strangely, still covered in several inches of crunchy snow which was fun. It took the others a little while to adapt to the snow riding,but they soon got it.

At Abinger I made a mistake and turned right. So to get back on track we had to ride up Rad Lane. Rad lane is a bridleway and is often tricky to ride because of a couple of muddy sections. Because of the melting snow the mud section was much longer and extremely challenging. I dabbed at least five times! :)

Up over Holmbury the trails were pretty clear, at the top we met with Jason and Gary out with the Moose Cycles ride. Their Wales trip to Cwmcarn had been called off because of ice dropping onto vehicles from the rigging of the Severn Bridge.
We did a couple of loops of Holmbury taking in Telegraph row. Alan liked this trail so much that he logged it's position on his gps. :)
We headed back across the Roughs attacking each other repeatedly until Jane finally gapped Alan, I came around him and almost caught her before we got to the icy wet 'truce' area :) On Hole Hill Alan and Paul rode away, I was stuffed I've only got a couple of hours in me at the moment.

Great fun :)

Seized rear wheel cassette

This is what you need to do if like me, you ride your mountain bike though numerous rivers in deepest Wales, and then leave it to rust.

Headley on ice

Myself and Nick Allen attempted to ride out to Betchworth this morning but soon relised that the roads were treacherous as we passed Epsom and headed up onto the downs. We had to try but it was impossible to ride without falling off.
This time of the year we should all err on the side of caution and either head out on the mountain bike or stay in on the turbo

Tuesday Mtb

We set out a bit later today because of the minus 5 in the night was still hanging on to the morning:)

Roger arrived in brilliant sunshine at about 11 ish, it had taken him tw0 hours to ride the 15 miles that normally takes him about an hour.

Once we were off road it was beautiful deep and soft squeaky snow. At first it was quite tricky to ride and I couldn't stay with Roger at all ( after all he'd had 2 hours more practice than me :)

Across the roughs the snow was very deep and a couple of time we had to push the bikes to a shallower bit.

Once over White Down the going got bit easier and the girly squeals lessened as the font wheels slipped less :)

From here we crossed the A25 at Abinger, then took the bridleway around the back of Shere. After a loop to Albury and back we headed into Shere for tea and toast.

Sitting at the back of the cafe were Gary and Eric! After some gossip and toast we headed back over the Roughs.


At White down me and Roger elected to ride up the road hill, while Gary and Eric carried on off road. The on road was much more difficult than off, as the snow was compressed solid. I dabbed twice, it was that slippery! Once over the top we cruised steadily down the hill until we came out into the sunshine where the ice had softened. Suddenly Roger's front wheel slipped and in slow motion he slid to the ground in front of me. I could do nothing and landed on top of him, a surprisingly soft landing! We lay in the floor tangled up like a game of twister and giggled for a while. No physical damage done maybe some ego bruising though :-)

Snow!!!!!!

I didn't ride today, but I found an old skate board with no wheels and sledged on Box Hill.  

If anyone fancies riding mountain bikes tomorrow with me and Roger we leave my house around 10 ish, and ride around the North Downs. It should be fun we've had 180 mm's(7 ins) so far today :-)

January's poll

It looks like we are all going to knuckle down and get some good hard training in during the next few months as part of your new years resolution.