Audax cycle Ride in the spring

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Neil Wheadon — Thu, 28 Nov 2019 15:33:34 GMT

Any thoughts for 2020 folks?

Neil

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Gillian Mostyn — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 11:50:12 GMT

It was a great day ... Thanks for organising Neil!

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Robin Grimmer — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 13:50:15 GMT

[quote user="Gillian Mostyn"]

OK... So I didn't do the training or lose the Xmas kgs, but hey ho, it'll be a nice day out eh?

You all still ok for this?

[/quote]

I'll be there. I'll be wearing my cycling Vietnam top

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Julian Earl — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 08:53:27 GMT

[quote user="Julian Earl"]My Bristol-friend has just had his expensive Wlier Time-trial bike stolen: From outside his mother's house when he stopped to just knock on her door. So an opportunistic thief. But it is a valuable piece of kit, mainly black and yellow. So if you happen to see one for sale or anything suggestive that someone is riding it like they nicked it, chances are they did![/quote]

Sometimes one is lucky. My friend has his bike back. A policeman saw a Wilier lying on the ground next to a bike shop, recognised it while he was just passing and on child-protection duty, so he waited until a youth came along to pick it up. When challenged the youth and mates got stroppy until the policeman showed his warrant card . The bike was removed to inside the shop for safe-keeping, my mate was informed, confirmed the bike's details and they were re-united. Luckily the lads did not even take the tool-kit from the bike nor the Garmin. On checking the Garmin, it appears that they "rode it" up the M5 at 93mph! Impressive - ho ho! But now my friend has his Wilier TT-bike back and is mightily pleased.

Re the original topic of the thread, I hope that you all have an excellent ride. Good luck.

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Neil Wheadon — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 23:26:37 GMT

Yup, been in training

www.youtube.com/watch

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Gillian Mostyn — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 21:51:41 GMT

OK... So I didn't do the training or lose the Xmas kgs, but hey ho, it'll be a nice day out eh?

You all still ok for this?

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

louise nixon — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 12:43:53 GMT

Cheddar Gorge isn't actually that bad - I made it up and I'm very average. Though next time I may stop and look at the scenery a bit more!

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Julian Earl — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 17:32:18 GMT

My Bristol-friend has just had his expensive Wlier Time-trial bike stolen: From outside his mother's house when he stopped to just knock on her door. So an opportunistic thief. But it is a valuable piece of kit, mainly black and yellow. So if you happen to see one for sale or anything suggestive that someone is riding it like they nicked it, chances are they did!
It was locked up he says but clearly not well enough!

He is a very experienced rider but slipped up here I think!

This is his bike:

https://stolen-bikes.co.uk/stolen-bikes/wilier-triestina-izoard-xp-3/?fbclid=IwAR0tqvbwpQe7PzyOb5MqI4S36AKezv39Z29MRhjzvUOXVFUmOsMwjuY2FHQ

If any of you are in the area, then be suspicious of any nervous-looking riders on a Wilier please.

Thanks in advance.

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Julian Earl — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 12:07:59 GMT

[quote user="Robin Grimmer"]

Not 3 times?

I did Ventoux malaucene to Sault in august - as part of Channel to the Med cycle.

[/quote]

Apologies for this in case I'm playng Top Trumps! The second time up the Tourmalet was part of the Raid Pyrenneen , riding 766km from Hendaye on the west end of the Pyrennees to Cerbere on the east end. You ride over 15 passes + assorted minor climbs, and 11,000metres of climbing along the way, going over the Aspin, the Tourmalet and the Aubisque in one day, and to get the certificate one has to do it between 9am Monday and 1pm Friday so under 100 hours. This was my most challenging four days ever on a bicycle. Even the supposedly easier final day was in fact a pretty tough 65 miles along the coast climbing a whole series of shorter steep-ish climbs until the magnificent final swoop down to Cerbere for the final checkpoint at the café on the edge of the beach. (sprinting to get there before 1pm of course!) We were lucky, I think, in that it was very good weather every day, but 30 degrees at the start of the 22km of the Tourmalet. and 35 degrees at the top. We joked that because we were now 2,000 metres closer to the sun! We took 1 hour 20 minutes to climb but under 20 minutes to descend the22 km of the other side to Marie St Campan!

A truly memorable week with good friends, great scenery, good roads and a real achievement. Four of the days were well over 100 miles.

The finish was memorable for all sorts of reasons but it was so hot that we just took off our cycling shoes and jumped into the sea to cool down in our other cycling kit. From there we loaded the coach and were driven back to the UK. Alas, the air-conditioning on the coach had failed so that was not so good! Happy days in any case!

I recommend this challenge ride to anyone who will listen! I hope that the Bash is as good and satisfying for you.

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Robin Grimmer — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 10:46:59 GMT

Not 3 times?

I did Ventoux malaucene to Sault in august - as part of Channel to the Med cycle.

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Gillian Mostyn — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 09:36:20 GMT

[quote user="Julian Earl"] So please just Remind me, what does Ventoux translate as?[/quote]

I did the 'easiest' ride from Sault and it was 1152m ascent. I also needed a few stops, but was very proud to do at anyway.

Ian completed both the other route options the following day, going up Ventoux twice in a day. Now THAT us impressive. If also nuts.

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Neil Wheadon — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 17:59:49 GMT

[quote user="Anthony Dennison"]

[quote user="Julian Earl"] going straight up Cheddar Gorge[/quote]

Just reading that has made my legs hurt.

[/quote]

Well if you watch Call the Midwife, here's Jennifer Worth. Jennifer came on many family holidays with me at the period when she was writing her books and sadly died just before the BBC came on board.

Here she is halfway up Cheddar Gorge

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Julian Earl — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 16:30:38 GMT

[quote user="Gillian Mostyn"]

600 feet of climbing over 100km is not easy, but neither is it terribly hard. I did that over 27km going up Mont Ventoux!

But I can understand you deciding not to interrupt your season...good luck with your events!

[/quote]

Respect to you Gillian. Ventoux is on my continental bucket-list. I've ridden most, not quite all, of the big continental climbsand way back in 1982 I battled up the Gaibier which is extremely tough, especially on the Telegraphe side , which finishes at about 8-10% IIRC for the last 1-2km. The following descent is pretty exhilarating though! I thought that nowhere could be tougher than the Galibier until I rode the Tourmalet firstly the side up past La Mongie in 2001, then the opposite way in 2003.The latter was undoubtedly tougher than the Galibier, starting with about 2km of 8% and peaking at 10% before cresting by the statue and café. When riding down the Tourmalet in 2001 on the Etape du Tour I hit my fastest ever speed on a bicycle56mph on the dead straight bit at the bottom in a big bunch of riders and a French bloke [judged by the tricolour flag on the back of his bike!] on his mountain bike overtook us all at heaven knows what speed!

I've generally cope with gradients but hate head-winds So please just Remind me, what does Ventoux translate as? I am not rushing to ride over the Ventoux!

Good luck and cheers to all who do ride the Bash. I hope to read a full report in due course...

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Anthony Dennison — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 11:21:07 GMT

I did a club ride soon after I started riding that went up a long, horrible hill in a place called Appley Bridge, just outside Wigan. Few weeks later I went out on my own on a weekend and worked round so I would come down the hill rather than up it, felt very smug flying down rather than crawling up.

Forgot about the hill at the other side of the valley which was just as bad

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Arlo Guthrie — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 11:03:30 GMT

[quote user="Anthony Dennison"]Just reading that has made my legs hurt.[/quote]

Which is precisely why I bought an electrically assisted bike in the first place

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Anthony Dennison — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 11:01:24 GMT

[quote user="Julian Earl"] going straight up Cheddar Gorge[/quote]

Just reading that has made my legs hurt.

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Arlo Guthrie — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 10:49:57 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]Damn, just tried to enter and it says its full.[/quote]

Oh and I was going to ask if you're allowed to do these things on electrically-assisted bikes (I'm sure people would look down their noses, but I don't mind that, the question is whether they're allowed!).

Also, can I remind everyone to visit your profile and make sure you have added cycling as an interest (top nav > My Account > View/Edit My Profile).

Then visit VetSurgeon Connect here: https://www.vetsurgeon.org/user/connect.aspx# and press the link to 'share my location'.

You then get displayed on the map to anyone else in your area who is also into cycling (or has any other shared interests as specified in your profile). And of course you can see anyone else in your area who has specified cycling.

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 10:39:25 GMT

Damn, just tried to enter and it says its full. I was going to pay the entry fee as its so small and keep my options open but skiing or BSAVA were still going to take priority.

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Gillian Mostyn — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 07:28:30 GMT

3600 feet of climbing over 100km is not easy, but neither is it terribly hard. I did that over 27km going up Mont Ventoux!

But I can understand you deciding not to interrupt your season...good luck with your events!

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Julian Earl — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 23:26:02 GMT

My friend has replied and has said that he has ridden all of it and nothing in the route is extreme, but Dundry is never easy! He thinks that the GPX route in that link is the easy-option though and the other option is much harder. David is a bloke who chases cars through Bristol at 30-40+mph so I trust him if he says a route is tough! I cannot recall seeing a flat road in the whole of Bristol when I have been there. It is like Sheffield, built on the Earth's equivalent of an egg-tray! Good luck!

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Julian Earl — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 19:55:22 GMT

[quote user="Gillian Mostyn"]

was thinking Julian's post didn't sound like the route description I'd read!!!

Only 10 places left now...

Okay, thanks for the comments. I've e-mailed my friend in the area to question his local knowledge and will see what he says about the route this time. I am still doubtful for it though. A 450 miles round-trip for an Audax mid-season is maybe not such a bright idea for me. The National championship is likely in late June or early July and I absolutely must be both fit and fresh for that. Fresh is a key because I have found in the last couple of years since I re-stated my racing-"career" that I do not recover well after mid-week races to be fresh at the weekend as well. My consultant tells me that my medication for rheumatoid arthritis has the effect of slowing tissue repair. Adalimumab, not steroids thank goodness!

Thanks anyway.

[/quote]

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Gillian Mostyn — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 16:40:27 GMT

I was thinking Julian's post didn't sound like the route description I'd read!!!

Only 10 places left now...

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Robin Grimmer — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 15:18:49 GMT

Here is the route: actually only 3600 feet of climbing

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/4317723

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Neil Wheadon — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 15:07:07 GMT

Yes his sons are baking the cakes

Neil

RE: Audax cycle Ride in the spring

Robin Grimmer — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 15:05:52 GMT

According to the site, it's 72 miles and 4200 feet of climbing. It also says the organiser is Marcus Mumford. It's not the Marcus Mumford, is it?