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.