LEL day 3

Really hilly yesterday in the Scottish boarders and a strong head wind. It was beautiful route though.
Storm delayed me crossing the Pennines but did eventually leave Brampton and had a long ride to reach Barnard castle at 2am.
Missed a 6am wake up so lost another couple of hours.
Whorlton suspension bridge.

LEL controls

You know when you're in Scotland when there's this on offer with the coffees at the feed controls.

North Nottingham Olympic '25' & Shaftsbury '50'

I had a couple of fast outings mid July while the 100th Tour was wending its way through France, the North Nott's Oly '25' I've ridden numerous times on fixed usually but this time I plumped for gears as I've not done much and I was wanting to get the best out of myself in the next week Shaftsbury '50'
Almost a repeat of last year when the long spell of dry weather was broken by thunder storms that fell early evening, gone are the days when a Saturday time trial was midday due to traffic count this part of the Great North Road is used in the early evening (first rider 5PM) so it was a long days wait (I did 20m in the AM & some Yoga) watching the Tour for inspiration. The first 30 or so riders were deluged to the point where the A1 was almost un-rideable and some competitors decided it was too dangerous but by the time I was off an hour later the rain had completely cleared up and the temperature dropped and all we were left with was damp roads to contend with.
I still did a good warm-up on the 'rollers' as my legs had been sore after doing my first Mallory Park evening criterium in two years on the Tuesday, I finished in the bunch and a bit of a shock to the system. The wind was a bit weird stirred up by the evening storms and I set out with the aim of not going too much into the red too early! 10:45 for my first (5m) split and then 11:02 and 11:20 as I negotiated the damp turn and then picked up a bit on the way back, as it was evidently faster 10:24 as you climb up to Newark and then 10:14 dropping down to finish at Sutton on Trent 53:46 about 30 seconds down on my usual for this course but good enough for 10th and only 2:30 off the winner's time Adam Gascoigne (Loughborough)
The next Saturday I have the Uber fast '50' on the Newmarket bypass and around (A14/A11) Last year this event was run off in almost perfect windless conditions but today we have a steady NW wind that will make the long 20 mile pull out to the turn at Red Lodge hard work and the heat is there to make it worse, I still see some riders with a bare 500ml bottle and some with none at all but I'm taking a full litre! (of water) and it can go on my legs if I think I don't need it.
The first ten miles out and home 21:57 does not look bad as I think anything inside 1:50 today will be a 'good job' so I have to average 22:00 for each ten mile section over the duration, my second split 23:34 is not so pleasant as the wind hampers my progress but I dare not put in too much for fear of overdoing it and having nothing for the return. After a while my legs get the hang of the conditions but my head still has to rule and the (out & home) third split 22:28 means I can let loose a bit as I now have a tail wind and the worst is out the way 19:58 is good work and pulls back the time lost on the two previous splits but I still have to do the final ten miles, (the same as the first) This means a hard final five miles but 21:41 gives me a time of 1:48:51 making a negative split of nearly 5 minutes as I was at the '25' point in 56:51 and then a nice round 52:00 for the second half. Just shows what you can make back if you hold your nerve, last year I was 53:04 to the turn and I suffered on the way back into the wind as I usually put everything into the first half but when you only have a limited amount of condition you have to be assiduous with it and on this occasion I think I played it right. Winner was a new name at this level Jon Wynn (Northover VT) 1:40:47 (52:10) from current BBAR Adam Topham (High Wycombe) 1:41:16 (52:54) and third 51 year old Kevin Tye 1:41:37 (53:28) winning the Vets prize with +38:50

LEL # Out

Paul & Alan's times on the outward journey to Edinburgh on the LEL, Paul started a couple of hours behind Alan but had caught him up by Pocklington control between Humber Bridge and York Alan stayed over for a few hours at Moffat before getting to Edinburgh early this morning, Paul rested up for a few hours at Thirsk and pressed on to make Edinburgh before midnight for another short rest. They are both on the return journey, follow them at LEL Website you can now track them by name (or number)

Alan

Started	28/07/2013	08:15:00
St Ives	28/07/2013	11:43:08	28.54km/h
Kirkton	28/07/2013	15:22:57	24.84km/h
Market Rasen	28/07/2013	18:41:37	19.93km/h
Pocklington	28/07/2013	23:14:21	19.80km/h
Thirsk	29/07/2013	03:46:07	14.35km/h
Barnard Castle	29/07/2013	12:28:30	07.70km/h
Brampton	29/07/2013	17:19:31	16.91km/h
Moffat	29/07/2013	22:18:41	14.84km/h
Edinburgh	30/07/2013	07:58:27	08.38km/h

Paul 

Started	28/07/2013	10:30:00
St Ives	28/07/2013	13:36:14	31.90km/h
Kirkton	28/07/2013	16:16:53	33.99km/h
Market Rasen	28/07/2013	19:10:26	22.82km/h
Pocklington	28/07/2013	23:21:57	21.47km/h
Thirsk	29/07/2013	06:55:06	08.61km/h
Barnard Castle	29/07/2013	10:54:03	16.82km/h
Brampton	29/07/2013	15:23:09	18.28km/h
Moffat	29/07/2013	19:13:17	19.29km/h
Edinburgh	30/07/2013	23:34:58	18.57km/h

Alston village

A very bumpy cobbled high street.

LEL day 2

I started the day in North Yorkshire, then it was on through Northumberland, and now Cumbria. The big climb today was over the Pennines at Yad Moss, after which a fast decent down to the quaint village of Alston where loads stopped in a bakery for tea and cake.

LEL day one

Paul has caught me up 2 hrs by the Pocklington control at 333km. Here we are having a midnight feast of pasta. Paul is staying while I'm carrying on to the next control at Thirsk.

SWRC in the Medals Region 9 Road Race Championships - Thaxted Essex 29/7/13

Andy Hicks & Roger Jackaman took silver and bronze respectively today in the Region 9 Road Race Championships at Thaxted in the 65 - 70 age group.

On a hot but blustery day over a challenging course, there was a good competitive field consisting of all age groups from age 60 upwards. There were several attacks by Geoff Wiles and his team mate Dick Naylor in the early stages of the race. Geoff & Dick are expert at "controlling the bunch" in this way, and eventually Dick slipped away. He stayed away for several laps but was caught with 1 10 mile lap to go. Andy Hicks initiated the sprint on the gently rising uphill finish, but was no match for Geoff Wiles' sprint. Geoff won the sprint for the race and his age group, while Andy & Roger took 2nd & 3rd in the 65 - 70 age group. So, not a bad result for SWRC.

LEL start

A beautiful sunny day here in Loughton to start the ride north. First stage is 100km up through Essex & Cambridgeshire. Bring it on.

London-Edinburgh-London 2013

This years big audax event is LEL and it starts tomorrow with all the riders meeting outside Buckingham Palace for a prologue up to the main start in Loughton, NE London. Total distance is 1400km or 875 miles.
Paul Alderson and myself are riding from the SWRC and you can follow our progress as we pass all the various controls up and down the country.
PAUL's number is X43 and can be found at  Paul Alderson

ALAN's number is L32 and can be found at  Parky

Here is the route and control distances

Maximum time is 5 days but we both hope to get round in about 4 days, or about 250 miles per day.
Together with Matt Scholes we all rode the similar event Paris-Brest-London in 2011.

We have 1093 people on the start list, from 32 countries. Here's the breakdown by country. 6% of riders are women, our highest proportion of women riders ever.

United Kingdom	470
Germany	153
France	90
USA	44
Italy	34
Netherlands	27
Japan	26
Poland	26
Ireland	23
Denmark	20
Sweden	20
Canada	19
Spain	19
Switzerland	14
Finland	12
Belgium	11
Greece	11
Australia	9
India	9
Taiwan	8
Slovenia	7
South Africa	7
Austria	6
Brazil	6
Russia	5
Singapore	5
Bulgaria	2
Croatia	2
Norway	2
Uzbekistan	2
Belarus	1
Colombia	1

At the sign on in Loughton

Inspired by Froome

Having caught the final riders in the second TT of the Tour on TV, I decided to have another crack at the beginners TT event with Charlotteville.  A warm sunny evening, but a slight change to the course with the return of the roadworks in Normandy.  A huge turn-out, and some fantastic looking bits of kit including:

The Lotus Sport....

This sparked a debate on whether this should be ridden or placed in a museum, and whether or not it was appropriate to ride it on a Wednesday evening at a novice event just outside of Guildford....

The ride was underway as smoothly as always, and I was feeling more controlled.  Difficult to draw too many conclusions from a slightly different course, but the strava segments suggested a good night on the bike, having caught my 4 minute man....

SWrc Do SDW

Nick Allen, Niall Clutton and myself together with our friend Dave Ward set out to ride the South Downs Way in a day. This ride is a tough 100 miles long and stretches from Winchester to Eastbourne. It all started when we took the first train of the day from Waterloo, Wimbledon, Woking and arriving at Winchester.

South Downs Way, a set on Flickr.

MagnifiCat Sportive

Nick Allen is looking magnificent in this years Wiggle sportive. His glasses match his bike too.

I-O-W Weekend

like last year, roger and dawn jackaman , had organised another weekend away to the isle of wight,
this time staying in ryde.Friday morning we set off in light drizzel, from cobham car park, not enough
for a cape. we were a band of four, as roger was now in charge of driving and kit transfer , due to
dawn being in the wars , with a broken wrist and dodgy knee. our team was clive ( navigator)
paul, ray a motorcycle mate of rogers a me.we used the may flyer route as much as possible, its still
there on the tarmack " very handy !" the rain was by now setting in so we all donned our capes until
the last tea stop at rowlands castle, the sun had at last broken throu, and it looked like it was going to
be a hot weekend. after a slight detour we made it through havent and portsmouth , just before the
rush hour to get the passenger ferry to ryde , and the short trip up the hill to our hotel, where we met
up with roger dawn and ian who was here just to ride the island, recovering from a virus.

Sat 29th.  paul who had ridden here in may , convinced us all that the cycle way  around the island
was a great route to do, and quite easy to follow with bike signs at all the junctions, it takes in some
lovely quiet lanes and picture postcard villages. you can go clockwise blue or anti ,white signs.
we opted for anti clock. and set off towards cowes, and the short ferry trip across the medina river.
we then headed towards yarmouth using a gravel cycle path through a nature reserve, and a short
stop for coffee. the needles although not on the the cycle route, was worth a visit so a detour was
made at freshwater bay to take in the iconic view of the lighthouse at the end of the rocks, we left
all the tourists behind at the needles visitor centre and retraced our the route to freshwater bay ,
where roger and ray stopped to check out some classic italian mopeds, who had come from all
over the u.k to ride round the island. as we set off up the hill they overtook us sounding like a swarm
off angry hornets, burning lots of two stroke oil.we carried on along the military road, with great
views of the sea. it was now past lunch time but we managed to find a cycle friendly pub which
did some good food.we were all now feeling the effects of the sun and constant  hills, and
set off for ventnor, shanklin, bembridge and back to ryde 72 miles 5127 feet of  climbing.

Sun 30th  Clive had worked out a different route back, using two ferrys to get us on to hayling island
and then on to Stansted park a large national trust house, for breakfast in the lovely gardens. we then
made for south harting, liss , and tilford . my own energy levels had now run dry and I kept losing
the others wheels, by the time we reached goldaming I asked to be cut free, so I could take the easy
route through guildford giving coombe bottom a miss. a great weekend and with the weather it felt at
times like we were in majorca.