As The Wife is away with my son seeing her mother over half term it was my intention this weekend was to get in two 58 mile rides as I saw that as a way to make up some ground, or at least not fall so far behind. I would achieve this mileage cycling to Bognor Saturday, and cycling back Sunday. The weather forecast was good with winds from the SW which meant a headwind Saturday and a tail Sunday.
Sunday morning
felt OK. Went to the beach café for breakfast and a read of the papers, then on
to the bike.
I struggled to
start with but assumed that was the tiredness from the day before and the
breakfast. The wind seemed against me which didn’t make sense. After 20 miles I
was exhausted. At 30 odd miles heading up from Ockley to Coldharbour (Leith
Hill) I did get off and walk a hundred metres (to stretch my legs and my
Achilles which was killing me).
I got to
Dorking, less than 17 miles to go, but the train station in the sunlight looked
so inviting. I got a coffee and an Eccles cake and waited for a train. It was
an hour before the next Worcester Park train was due so I caught a train to
Cheam from where I had to cycle the 3 miles home. This enabled me to get in an
extra couple of miles which at least took me over the 100 miles for the weekend.
I see this
morning from Strava that whilst I was waiting at Dorking Station, Mike R was
cycling past on his return journey. He
had cycled half way to Bognor and back and was just behind me on the road. Good job I stopped or I would have had the
indignity of being overtaken.
I don’t know
what it is about the ride back but it always seems harder than the ride down
(even though there is more climb on the way down) and this is my second
successive return failure (last time I phoned The Wife from the top of Box Hill
for a lift home, this time I didn’t have the energy to get up Box Hill and The
Wife wasn’t around for rescue duties). This means that from a psychological
point of view I definitely need to succeed next time and not attempt it if I am
not determined.
When I got
home from Bognor (Via Dorking & Cheam) I ate, slept for an hour then
struggled all the evening. At one point I was on the phone to Graham and had to
cut off because I was so exhausted. I pecked at the ironing during the evening,
just doing enough to get me through the first couple of days this week. I also
had to clean the fish tank as Mick, Murphy and Molly were due their fortnightly
clean. Early to bed (alone).
The bike is
filthy if anyone wants to come around for a cleaning session. Additionally, the
chain was squeaking all weekend as I forgot to lubricate it after the last
ride.
This morning I
am still exhausted. Don’t think my turbo plans for this evening are practical.
The
frustrating part is that if I had got all the way home, that extra 15 miles
would mean that I would have caught up with Mike on mileage which would mean
that next weekend all I would have to do is sit on his back wheel then add an
extra couple of miles on the way home to stay ahead of him.
A Positive
take away: At least I got the Polka Dot.
Keep on rollin.
Results Courtesy of David C
Lovely weather in the south of the UK this weekend saw most people out on their bikes and the result was collectively the biggest weekly totals posted so far on the challenge - 545 miles and nearly 30,000 ft of climbing.
Steve wins his 4th yellow jersey and retains the lead in the GC. An impressive performance from Duncan with the highest weekly climbing total of the mini challenge so far sees him take the Polka dot jersey this week. Most impressive ride this week though surely goes to Craig with 4,549 ft of climbing in
Week 7 - Monday 11/2/13 - Sunday 17/2/13
| |||||
Name
|
No. of Rides
|
Miles Ridden
|
Climbing (ft)
|
Ranking - Miles
|
Ranking - KoM
|
Steve W
|
4
|
113.5
|
5,648
|
1
|
2
|
David C
|
1
|
104.0
|
3,537
|
2
|
6
|
Duncan S
|
3
|
101.7
|
6,664
|
3
|
1
|
Justin C
|
2
|
77.4
|
3,715
|
4
|
5
|
Mike R
|
1
|
69.0
|
4,453
|
5
|
4
|
Craig S
|
1
|
47.5
|
4,549
|
6
|
3
|
Michael C
|
1
|
31.8
|
1,416
|
7
|
7
|
Jon S
|
0
|
0.0
|
0
|
8
|
8
|
544.9
|
29982.0
| ||||
Mini Stava Challenge
| |||||
Totals
| |||||
Name
|
No. of Rides
|
Miles Ridden
|
Climbing (ft)
|
Ranking - Miles
|
Ranking - KoM
|
Steve W
|
30
|
635.3
|
31,540
|
1
|
1
|
David C
|
12
|
532.1
|
22,747
|
2
|
2
|
Justin C
|
13
|
371.6
|
17,208
|
3
|
4
|
Mike R
|
8
|
317.7
|
16,469
|
4
|
5
|
Duncan S
|
10
|
302.2
|
17,724
|
5
|
3
|
Michael C
|
12
|
229.8
|
12,643
|
6
|
7
|
Jon S
|
3
|
202.0
|
13,932
|
7
|
6
|
Craig S
|
4
|
141.9
|
11,977
|
8
|
8
|
2732.6
|
144240.0
|
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