Tuesday, 20 January 2009

Sunday January 18th 2009

This week I was prompted to put together the Guildford Peloton Club Calendar. This list, which is below, is a list of events that members (used loosely) will be looking to do together with a list of other events that may or may not occur. I myself will be doing some of these plus maybe if Team MK are up for it, the odd Audax.

Despite some brave talk about actually forming a club rather than being a stylish group of cyclist who email each other daily with brave and courageous intentions, meet up occasionally for a ride, letch over each others bikes, and have even been known to get together to go to the cinema in Leicester Square (the Guilford Peloton trip to see The Flying Scotsman, a film about Graham Obree, followed by a gourmet burger), nothing ever came of it. There has even been talk about setting up a Guildford Peloton website but these ideas came to grief when a rebellious and more recent section of the members wanted to change the name to the Picon Peloton.

Guildford Peloton Club Calendar

February TBA Box Hill Time Time Trial Leg 1
March 1st Puncehur Sportive near Brighton
March 8th 2009 SWRC 100
March TBA Box Hill Time Time Trial Leg 2
April TBA Box Hill Time Time Trial Leg 3
May 10th 2009 Hampshire Hilly Hundred
May 17th 2009 Etap Caledonia -
May 21st-25th 2009 Etap Reccie - Mont Ventoux
May 31st 2009 Chiltern 100
June TBA Box Hill Time Time Trial Leg 4
June 14th 2009 Dragon Ride -
July 4th 2009 Marmotte
July 20th 2009 Etap du Tour
July/ Aug TBA Family BBQ and Fun Day - (Venue top of Box Hill)
July/Aug/Sept TBA Club Championship - tba (Venue Guilford Velodrome)
July/Aug/Sept TBA Club AGM - (Venue Provisionally - National trust Tea Shop Box Hill)
September TBA Surrey Legs of Steel
Oct/Nov TBA Club Dinner & Dance
October 18th 2009 Gran Fondo Giro de Lombardia -

After last weeks Watership Down Audax in Winchester I had a headache until well into Monday afternoon. Suggestions that it may be dehydration are probably partially right, but some of the cause might be stress around the current demise of my employers HBOS. Either way the headache has now gone away.

Training was sparse this week with just an hour and a half on Wednesday in the garage on the turbo, followed by the usual striptease in front of the washing machine (The Wife won’t let me in the house dripping of sweat) and the naked dash of shame to the shower. I still haven’t set up the TACX IMagic so I am still using my circa 1990 rusty turbo.

Thursday my son had a rugby match (tag rugby). Year 4 was all called to the gym to get instructions at morning break. My son was told that he had been promoted to the A Team which pleased him, and he was even more pleased when they won 8-6.

Saturday I had to take my son to football. His team was missing their best player so it was a real psychological game. Would the team still be good without their best man? If they won it would be a real boost for the team. In the end they lost 3-2 but it was a good game not helped by the second best player getting a blister from his new boots and being out the game whist I rummaged through a dustbin full of smelly old football boots to try to find him another pair that he could use that fitted him better. Once he had the second pair of boots he was back on the pitch.

Saturday afternoon The Wife had me back out in the garden clearing up where the trellis had been removed over Christmas. It was a lovely day for gardening but jolly hard work moving bushes and flowerbeds and filling 15 bags with soil and carting it down the dump.

Sunday was my first ride since the previous Sunday. 8:15 AM I cycled over to Surbiton to meet M and together we cycled down through Esher and Cobham to Shere. The Peloton were meeting in Shere at 10:00 AM and we arrived about 2 minutes late to find everyone waiting. A number live in London and had taken the 9:12 train to Guildford from Waterloo rather than cycle down as M and I had. No time for a coffee in the Lucky Duck! There were seven of us and we cycled north up the hill and along the ridge, down Ranmore Common into Dorking then up Box Hill. There we stopped for refreshment (they had lovely Coffee and Walnut sponge cake; I had to have a piece to top up my fuel reserves). This was followed by an 8 mile circuit at speed around Box Hill and then we all parted at Rykers Café before M and I went back up Box Hill and home (the others headed back to Guilford).

We managed just over 55 miles on the Sunday morning ride. One of the guys had a camera and has posted the pictures on the web. Try the attached link.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/cmoar1/PiconPelotonDoGuildfordDorkingColDuBoxOnAWintryMorning?feat=directlink#

I got home and The Wife advised me she had been clearing up the garden and had another car load to go to the dump. I had to advise her that the dump closes at 13:00 on Sundays in the winter so that wasn’t possible. It wasn't received well as you can imagine, especially as her mother and sister will be coming over from Ireland for a long weekend this week and the house has to be pristine. A pile of bags of soil and rubbish still sitting on the patio awaiting transportation to the dump when they arrive is just not acceptable. In the end we ended up going to Kingston shopping (son needed a new mouth guard for rugby) followed by church.

Monday, 12 January 2009

Jan 11 2009 Where were all the bunnies?

This weekend I did the Watership Down Audax. As we crossed Watership Down on the single track road with grass growing in the middle of the road, we saw no sign of the famous bunnies. I reckon they have all emigrated to Hollywood or the Caribbean on the royalties from the film.

Last year the Guilford Peloton did an Etap reccie trip to the Tourmalet and Hautacam at the end of May. It was enjoyed by the ten riders who went. There has been talk about a 2009 trip for some months now. This week we committed to the Guilford Peloton 2009 Etap Reccie. This was prompted when I felt that time was passing so I started researching flights, this quickly developed into a full email dialogue which ended with at least 10 of us committing by booking flights. In addition there are another 6 people who are considering joining us.

As for the rest of the logistics, there is a feint possibility that one of the guys can get the use of a holiday home at the base of the Ventoux. Until this idea becomes a reality or gets dismissed we cannot arrange anything else. If we don’t get the holiday home we shall have to start looking at other accommodation possibilities so any ideas are welcome.

One thing we have got arranged is a support driver. Last year a recently retired colleague of one of the members drove the support van that followed and supported us each day. He has kindly agreed to do so again this year.

My son was off to MK this weekend to go to the theatre (to see Heidi) with his grandparents and cousins and to have a sleepover. He was travelling up to MK with his cousins and so I delivered him to their house in New Malden first thing Saturday morning. My son had a good weekend but was a little too confident and outspoken and upset his granddad. He had to phone up Sunday night to apologise.

My wife has been poorly since Wednesday with the flu. She was still very ill on Saturday so the afternoon walk along the river and dinner was out of the question. Instead we went to Kingston shopping and to the cinema to see the film “Australia”. Whilst this is a girlie film it is very watchable, if a bit long, but is a good way for you lads to earn some easy brownie points.

This week my training was a bit light. I did a 10 K rowing ergo on Tuesday night followed by a bike ride. In the rowing session I managed to knock another 30 seconds off the 10K time I did before Christmas. Looks like I didn’t do too badly over Christmas despite all the good food. On Thursday lunchtime I did a 30 minute row and half hour bike ride. I suffered in the Thursday session and it didn’t go well.

My only ride over the weekend was on Sunday, the Watership Down Audax. I spent Saturday night plotting the route from the route sheet on to photocopies of the OS maps I had bought. Sunday morning I left home at 7:00 AM and drove down to Winchester where I was supposed to meet my mate S and his Team MK team mates. When I met up with S, he told me that the lads from Team MK had all pulled out and it was only me and him. Good job I had plotted the route nd hadn't relied on the Garmin that one of the lads was supposed to have.

The next shock was that the organizers had changed the route to avoid riding some of the back roads early in the morning as there was ice on the roads. This put all my planning to waste and S and I had to plot the new route on my photocopied maps. The new route shortened the ride from 70 miles down to 62 miles.

The ride was restricted to 140 riders and was over-subscribed. In the event there were also a lot of unofficial riders. We all left in one pack at the appointed 9:30 start time. S and I were near the front but he very quickly had a problem with his bike computer and we had to stop. We dropped to near the back so had to work our way back through the field. On the first hill the road was covered with ice and we saw the first rider on the floor where he had fallen on the ice. Many people got off their bikes and walked; we stayed on and picked our way up the hill precariously and slowly. As we approached the first checkpoint at 20 miles we had passed much of the field and could see a group up in front of us. We arrived at he checkpoint just behind them. We got our card stamped and had a cup of coffee and a biscuit.

We weren’t there long as the group remounted to leave. We joined them but it was only a couple of miles further on we came upon a hill. The group broke into two groups very quickly, a small group of fast riders leaving the slower riders behind. We were not fast enough to stay with the faster riders and watched as they slowly drew away from us. On the other hand we soon left the slower riders behind and soon found ourselves alone. Over the next 40 miles we saw other riders from time to time but spent most of the time alone.

Going up the hill before entering Watership Down there is a short sharp bit of road just before the top of the hill. At this point my back wheel carelessly drifted onto the verge beside the tarmac and started to spin. I was lucky to get my foot out of the pedal before I fell over. I had to walk the last 20 yards of the hill as it was too steep to remount.

The route back was against a headwind and we felt it all the way. Whilst first thing it had been bright, as the day went on it clouded over. It was quite a bleak afternoon but at least it didn't rain.

At one point we followed the instructions and turned off a main road up a cross country single track road. The instructions said turn "First Right" off of this small road. The first right was a road down to a farm and obviously was not the correct turn. A couple of miles further on (after riding through a gypsy camp) we stopped to look at the OS map. There was no one behind us, and we hadn't seen anyone for some miles so we were a bit (very) afraid that we were off track. A few minutes later after some deliberation we decided we were on the correct route and, lo and behold, just around the corner from where we stopped we found the turning we were looking for.

We did well and despite being tired we pushed on for the finish against the wind. With a mile to go and looking good disaster struck – a puncture. Despite having a new front tyre and tube I got a puncture. I told S to go on but gentleman he is he waited and helped me. I dug many flints and stones out of the tyre whilst 5 or 6 riders went past us.

We got to the finish in 4 hours 50 minutes against the time of the fastest rider who did 4 hours 20 minutes for the 62 miles with 1100 metres of climb. We were well within the top twenty finishers despite the puncture. We were filthy covered in mud and did look a bit odd as if we had been dragged through the muddy fields. This, even though we had mudguards as they were compulsory on the event, but at least the mudguards meant we didn't have wet bottoms or muddy backs.

Sunday, 4 January 2009

Handy winter tip for those cold days

My wife tells me that if you have a chill or are feeling cold, the best way to get rid of it is to do some ironing. She tells me that it will always warm you up and leave you feeling warm and cosy.

Is she being helpful or is this my punishment for being out beyond curfew?

Happy New Year

The period before New Year is my wife’s busiest period. Normally she works 4 days a week but in December it is full on 5 days a week. It seems the reinsurance industry does all its renewals on January 1st and they leave it to the last minute to play off the various reinsurers and place the business. This is the first year that she hasn’t been sick with flu over the Christmas and New Year period.

I have already had to threaten to confiscate the Wii my son got for Christmas. My son and I had discussion around the fact that as Santa brought it so I can’t take it away, except I pointed out that I pay for the electricity and I was not going to let him use it. He is currently serving a one week ban on both the Wii and the DS. When his mother later threatened to take the DS away for a day, not knowing I had already imposed a ban, she was met with “so what, Dad has already taken it away for a week”.

He also got a new Alonso (in Benetton colours) and Raikennen (in Maclaren colours) for his Scalextrics. So far neither has been able to beat the Ralf Schumacher (missing front wing due to collisions) in Williams colours I bought second hand on ebay the other year.

I always take the Christmas period off to cover the shopping and childcare but that doesn’t allow free time for lots of cycling. I am usually too busy trying to complete the list my wife has prepared. This year as well as the usual shopping, childcare and general maintenance it included digging up a trellis in the garden that had been installed using a lorry load of concrete. A jackhammer had to be hired at great expense to break up the blocks of concrete before two trips to the municipal dump. Good training maybe but it nearly killed me.

We spent New Years Eve at the holiday home in Bognor. My son and I drove down and went to the local swimming baths (surprisingly clean for a school holiday period) whilst my wife came from work later by train. My wife, much to my surprise, actually suggested I take my bike and cycle back. New Years Eve we had a very nice Chinese take away and were in bed by 10:00 PM but I did hear the canon fired from the sailing club at midnight before turning over and going back to sleep.

New Years Day we, as a family, cycled along the promenade, a grand total of about 5 miles. I was on an old mountain bike that is maintained down there. The mileage doesn’t really count so I wasn’t using my Polar CS600. I ws cold and my son moaned most of the way in the way that 8 year olds do.

January 2nd, my first ride of 2009. I cycled the 58 miles back from Bognor, in the fields the drinking troughs and ponds were still frozen, however, the sun was shining as I came through Coldharbour I still had energy in my legs so rather than skirt Col Ranmore I decided to divert up Col Ranmore. I then went on to Mont Box and home. The whole journey took just over 4 hours door to door including stops.

On Sunday January 4th, M and I braved the frost. We were riding out to Shere to meet the Guildford Pootle-oners. On the way we came across a car that had just done a flip on the ice and landed on its roof. Good job too, as if we hadn’t of seen it we would have probably hit the ice and come croppers ourselves. Fortunately no one was hurt. We stopped but the driver (in his 30’s) was phoning his Dad to say he was all right but the car was a right-off.

We met the lads at Shere. We were already in the Lucky Duck drinking tea/coffee when they arrived having done the epic journey (all of 7 miles) from Guildford. We were ready to leave but they were ready to warm up so we stayed in the Lucky Duck for another 45 minutes.

When we left the café time was getting tight for M and I. M had been given responsibility to pick up his offspring from the childminder and then go on to pick up his partner from her work. What didn’t help was me getting another puncture (since getting home I have now put a new tyre and tube on the front wheel). By this time we were well beyond both our curfews so we left the Pootle-oners on the top of Ranmore heading in the direction of Leith and we headed for Mont Box, Leatherhead, Esher and home. M was riding like a man possessed and it was all I could do to hang on to his back wheel. After leaving him (half hour beyond curfew) at his house I cycled the last 4.5 miles home rather slower, despite my own breach of curfew (arrived 50 minutes after curfew). Another 52 miles banked.

2009 is going to be a challenge in a number of ways, work (will I still have a job, and will it be the job I want), holidays (we still haven’t booked for 2009), and my sons hormones (his answering back and constant challenging, both physically and verbally, is wearing thin on the patience of his parents, hence my new years resolution to be more patient and less irritable).

I have already entered for the 2009 Dragon Ride, Hampshire Hilly Hundred, and a ride in the Chilterns which I can’t find the entry acknowledgement for at the moment (that’s organisation for you). I don’t yet have an Etap entry and I am not going to do the Marmotte with the other Guilford Pootle-oners as there is no way my legs are up for that.

I have sent an entry off for another Audax on January 11th. It is 108 Km and called Watership Down. It starts at Kings Worthy near Winchester and I am doing it with my friend S from Team MK and other members of Team MK. My participation depends on The Wife and also on my son’s chauffeuring needs.

One thing I will not be doing is the Atlantic Challenge (rowing from the Azores to Antigua) despite the fact that S of MK is full of enthusiasm to join me on the event. The wife has put an absolute veto on this event. It starts December 15th 2009 but we are leaving it a bit late to get boat and sponsorship, not to mention training. Mind you, the way the banks crashed in 2008, we might just have free time on our hands, there is just the problem of the financing. Anyone know a sponsor willing to put up £35,000 to finance the two of us to punish ourselves across the Atlantic? The race only takes about 70 days finishing some time in February 2010.