Richmond Cyclosportives 2009

4 Dales 80 m and 3 Dales 50 m

Trio over Tan Hill

Cyclosportives[1] - what’s the point?
We missed out on a Bronze medal by one minute – 80 miles in 6 hours 31 minutes was one minute too long. Looking back over the day it was easy to say where we lost that minute – top of Birkdale, waiting to get my heart rate down to something I had seen before, the girls false wee stop to shake-off a young man stealing a ride, or was it the extra moment spent in denial of the task, sat in the sun, with a pasty, in Hawes? I did think M and M were being a bit slow on the descents but there again they probably thought I was being a bit slow on the ascents.

I know my role in this trio.

Is this what semi-competitive means? One half of you just wants to complete the ride with your mates, get your certificate and wallow in self-satisfaction for the next however many hours, days or even weeks. The other half wants to out- do them and break a record.

So just for the record I recorded:-
· a max heart rate of 222bpm. Beat that tyre suckers. By rights I should be dead so I guess that heart rate belonged to some young fitter thing nearby or interference from the surrounding military zone. There are not many roads in the UK where you get ‘Tank turning’ road signs.
· 2335 metres of climbing. This compares to cycling over Hellvelyn followed by Ben Nevis. Who would have thought The Stang, Tan Hill, Birkdale Common and Mallerstang of the Yorkshire Dales could muster that many metres.
· average of 22.2kph (under 14 miles an hour)This exceeds the overall average speed of 12 days cycling in Mallorca so I must be fitter
· 75.6kph descending from Birkdale Common. That is over 47 miles an hour for you imperialists
· 3229kcals burnt. That is the equivalent to 161 jelly babies, or 32 bananas, or 10 flapjacks, or 6 vanilla milkshakes or over 14 cans of lager!

Whichever way you look at it, it is not a race but neither is it a walk with a ‘picnic in the park’! Only one person in our 4 Dales event was fast enough to complete their 80miles (135kms) in the golden time of under 4hours 50 minutes (16+ miles an hour or 25 kms an hour, and that is 3 kms an hour faster than us.) That is a lot of jelly baby power.

So what is the point? Being able to wake up the next day and know that the one think you don’t have to do is ride 80miles but that you can have a ‘picnic in the park’. Or sit in a sunny English apple orchard, with your friends, feeling wholly satisfied with having completed the challenge, drinking tea, sharing a yoga session, reading papers and chatting, and, eating what ever you fancy without a care for intake over expenditure, cos’ yesterday you ……did a cyclosportive.
[1] Cyclosportives – a mass participation, semi-competitive, one day cycling event and challenge of both distance and climbing! http://cyclinginfo.co.uk/blog/cyclo-sportives/training-for-cycle-sportives

Bike Right! directors on a day off. Liz and Jo go over Tan Hill and successfully complete the 3 Dales 50 miles in 4 hours 46 minutes.

OVER THE EDGE 10th May 2009

We took our Majorca legs, topped up by a 60-mile Cheshire ‘Ride of the Meres’ with Glynis and Dave on May bank holiday, to Hollingworth Lake for a 55-mile challenge – the annual Over the Edge ride organised by Pennine Cycle Club, to which our mate Pauline belongs. We opted for the Gold route (Liz’s idea).

The day was freezing (the forecast long hot summer has not yet begun) but starting with a two and a half mile climb cured any complaints on that front. Ascending was the theme of the day: time after time we looked out over vast swathes of moor and rippling, chilly reservoirs; valley floors and hillside populated by scruffy sheep and chubby lambs. We weaved back and forth, being welcomed into Lancashire and Yorkshire respectively as we took in Mytholmroyd, Heptonstall, Mereclough, Holme Chapel (not the Cheshire one, that has an ‘s’ on the end), Todmorden, Hebden Bridge and finally back to Littleborough. This was true England, the antidote to satanic mills.

A wind farm was spectacular in its majesty and power, catching gusts up in their sails on a day where we rolled unimpeded by the elements. Okay, it did rain for half an hour, making grey Todmorden look grimmer than ever and drawing comparisons with Wuthering Heights. But on the whole our four and a half hour outing went swimmingly (excuse the mixed metaphors), especially when a local resident handed me an oat bar and a bag of jelly beans laid out for his son who had whizzed past without stopping.

The real tough bit was the 35-minute pull up past Heptonstall, but with the help of good muscles and a granny ring, we made it and celebrated at the final top with a banana. The other major hill – five and a half miles up Cragg Vale – was, if you’ll excuse the vernacular a piece of piss. We did decide, however, that next time we’re in the area we’ll go down that way, as it is undoubtedly a lot easier to coast for twenty minutes than push pedals for twice as long.

Arriving back at Littleborough having hit speeds of 37mph (fearless Liz) on the same hill we had toiled up four hours earlier, we collected our medals. For some reason, people presumed we had been doing the silver ride. “I thought you were a long time”, said Pauline.


JO and LIZ

Manchester Mini Run 16th May 2009
Eden wins his first running medal....with grandma Glyn and supported by Jacob, Eve and Libby.