# Barry's Jaeger Bomb 300 2nd September 2017



## User482 (2 May 2017)

http://audax.lvis.org.uk/

From Keynsham, near Bristol. This will be my first 300 - eek!


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## Banjo (5 May 2017)

The Col de Shipham climb near the end will be fun

Tempted to enter if I can.looks like a good ride.


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## User482 (5 May 2017)

Banjo said:


> The Col de Shipham climb near the end will be fun
> 
> Tempted to enter if I can.looks like a good ride.


Yeah, I thought hauling us over the Mendips right at the end was a bit mean. Still, it'll be dark so we won't see it.


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## Floating Bombus (17 May 2017)

At 2426m it's not as hilly as I thought. But it's the quality of those hills that counts, and with Dyrham, Pewsey Downs and the Mendips not to mention those lumpy bits around Clevedon I don't the name of (looks the same as the end of the Ball Buster?) these will be high quality hills. Tempted, it would be my second 300, but I'll see how I get on with my first before committing myself.


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## Spartak (26 Jul 2017)

I've entered this one .... 

[ Hopefully family life / work won't scupper my plans ! ]. 

Looks like another great route from the LVIS team ;-)



User482 said:


> Yeah, I thought hauling us over the Mendips right at the end was a bit mean. Still, it'll be dark so we won't see it.



Only ever ridden down Shipham !


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## User482 (26 Jul 2017)

Spartak said:


> I've entered this one ....
> 
> [ Hopefully family life / work won't scupper my plans ! ].
> 
> ...


Excellent!

I've never climbed the Mendips that way - I usually go up Harptree, Burrington or Cheddar.


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## Banjo (20 Aug 2017)

Dont feel fit enough for a hilly 300 .have entered the Tewkesbury 200 which is on the same day.

Good luck to everyone riding the Jaeger Bomber.Maybe next year for me.


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## Spartak (26 Aug 2017)

One week to go .....

Preparation = zero !

Longest ride in last couple of months is only 60kms !

So my thoughts for the day will be .....

Sit on bike & pedal for 15 hours ;-)

Who else is a confirmed rider ? @User482


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## User482 (26 Aug 2017)

Yep. I've done very little riding, but aim to do 150km on Monday.


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## Spartak (28 Aug 2017)

User482 said:


> Yep. I've done very little riding, but aim to do 150km on Monday.



Don't suppose you've seen a .TCX file for the ride yet ?


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## User482 (28 Aug 2017)

Spartak said:


> Don't suppose you've seen a .TCX file for the ride yet ?


I think it's on their website. I did part of the route today, and it looks like a good one.


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## Spartak (31 Aug 2017)

Route loaded into Garmin ....

Bike ready .....

Weather looks perfect .....

Rider ???


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## Heltor Chasca (31 Aug 2017)

Banjo said:


> Dont feel fit enough for a hilly 300 .have entered the Tewkesbury 200 which is on the same day.
> 
> Good luck to everyone riding the Jaeger Bomber.Maybe next year for me.



Possibly my first 300 attempt next year. And if the toll is removed on the bridge I think I'll be up for some rides your side of the bridge. I could also park up in Aust.


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## User482 (31 Aug 2017)

Spartak said:


> Route loaded into Garmin ....
> 
> Bike ready .....
> 
> ...


Quite. I don't think I have the legs at the moment, but Castle Cary provides a bailout train station at 200km, so I'll give it a go. Don't forget lights and layers!


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## Banjo (31 Aug 2017)

Did a 200 perm this week and after a warm afternoon arm warmers were soon followed by the windproof.Temp drops quickly when sun goes in.

Get that train station out of your head User482 or it will lure you in....


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## Ajax Bay (1 Sep 2017)

On the waiting list; and now off the waiting list; and in, for tomorrow. Route.
Ephemera
Sunrise 0653 (after we start at 0630); sunset 1953 (as seen from the top of the Mendips??) with the waxing gibbous (87%) moon rising at 1759 to light us home.
And a bit of off road after the M4, if you want, and also a bit on offer on the Mendips: after Charterhouse at 281km go straight on (ie not left at cross roads) and right fork once on gravel track).


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## User482 (1 Sep 2017)

Ajax Bay said:


> On the waiting list; and now off the waiting list; and in, for tomorrow. Route.
> Ephemera
> Sunrise 0653 (after we start at 0630); sunset 1953 (as seen from the top of the Mendips??) with the waxing gibbous (87%) moon rising at 1759 to light us home.
> And a bit of off road after the M4, if you want, and also a bit on offer on the Mendips: after Charterhouse at 281km go straight on (ie not left at cross roads) and right fork once on gravel track).


Your first alternative is ok (gravel track after the M4) but the second is pretty bumpy, if memory serves. And it will be dark.


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## User482 (2 Sep 2017)

Done! And what a cracking route to go with the lovely weather. 327km on the clock.


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## Spartak (2 Sep 2017)

Finished at 20:30. 

Sadly though my Garmin won't upload my ride ..... GRRRR 

I agree with @User482 .... great route :-)


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## Ajax Bay (7 Sep 2017)

Thanks to Marcus and Kirsty for an excellent ride with perfect weather. Enjoyed the Fosse Way gravel section, feeling suitably bold as the gravel got deeper at the NE end.
After a quick stop to control at Poulton, coinciding with the 9am assembly of about 50 riders from soi disant Performance Cycles, I enjoyed a quiche and a pint of milk from Lidl Amesbury (second control) before cutting through the Woodfords to the lovely Wylye valley, riding the latter in company with a 'fixed rider'. Stopped off to say hello to a friend who lives in Corton on the road NW of Wylye village. Onwards through Sutton Veny, Longbridge Deverill and Maiden Bradley to Alfred's Tower, above the Stourhead estate. I was due to stop for tea with a friend who lives just below the tower when, descending the wooded Kingsettle Hill at speed (?40kph) my front tyre blew (new on for LEL so about 2300km on it, the rear had another 1000 on it from Mille Pennines) and braking on a deflated front tyre didn't do it, and I lost it (together with any memory after the action of braking and keeping as straight as possible). Others in a group mostly from Stonehouse were right behind me and all I remember was being asked if I had a preference between Bath and Yeovil hospitals - I chose Yeovil (and went there by road (thanks to the air ambulance for attending too)). CT Scan and X-rays in A&E etc before transfer to ICU. Two days in ICU was enough - the punctured lung was stable and the various rib and shoulder blade fractures will apparently heal themselves. Discharged Monday evening and now back home generally sore, battered, grazed and weak but will get better. Thanks to my fellow riders for calling the ambulance quickly, for agreeing to let a local (Derrick) take charge of my bike (which is fine apart from a punctured front tyre and a bit of scratching to the Brooks saddle and STIs - but I have not yet seen it - in non-driving/riding mode for a while), and for taking my saddle and top tube bags and GPS off my bike and sending them with me in the ambulance (NB really good practice; they even put one of my glass's lenses in). I hope the my fellow riders were not too delayed on their ride, that my crash did not "spoil [their] ride" and that they enjoyed another 5 hours of excellent riding (we had taken 8:10 for the 200km so far). Sorry to have missed the ride over the Mendips, which would have been in daylight btw (@User482 ). My quest to get to 50 AUK points looks as if it will be unrequited, this year anyway, as I shall be unable to ride for at least a month. Hey ho! When I recover my bike I shall ride the hill and try to see where I came off. When I think of the hills I've been down this year, Alfred's one is pretty innocuous (100m drop in a kilometre).


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## User482 (7 Sep 2017)

Ajax Bay said:


> Thanks to Marcus and Kirsty for an excellent ride with perfect weather. Enjoyed the Fosse Way gravel section, feeling suitably bold as the gravel got deeper at the NE end.
> After a quick stop to control at Poulton, coinciding with the 9am assembly of about 50 riders from soi disant Performance Cycles, I enjoyed a quiche and a pint of milk from Lidl Amesbury (second control) before cutting through the Woodfords to the lovely Wylye valley, riding the latter in company with a 'fixed rider'. Stopped off to say hello to a friend who lives in Corton on the road NW of Wylye village. Onwards through Sutton Veny, Longbridge Deverill and Maiden Bradley to Alfred's Tower, above the Stourhead estate. I was due to stop for tea with a friend who lives just below the tower when, descending the wooded Kingsettle Hill at speed (?40kph) my front tyre blew (new on for LEL so about 2300km on it, the rear had another 1000 on it from Mille Pennines) and braking on a deflated front tyre didn't do it, and I lost it (together with any memory after the action of braking and keeping as straight as possible). Others in a group mostly from Stonehouse were right behind me and all I remember was being asked if I had a preference between Bath and Yeovil hospitals - I chose Yeovil (and went their by road (thanks to the air ambulance for attending too)). CT Scan and X-rays in A&E etc before transfer to ICU. Two days in ICU was enough - the punctured lung was stable and the various rib and shoulder blade fractures will apparently heal themselves. Discharged Monday evening and now back home generally sore, battered, grazed and weak but will get better. Thanks to my fellow riders for calling the ambulance quickly, for agreeing to let a local (Derrick) take charge of my bike (which is fine apart from a punctured front tyre and a bit of scratching to the Brooks saddle and STIs - but I have not yet seen it - in non-driving/riding mode for a while), and for taking my saddle and top tube bags and GPS off my bike and sending them with me in the ambulance (NB really good practice; they even put one of my glass's lenses in). I hope the my fellow riders were not too delayed on their ride, that my crash did not "spoil [their] ride" and that they enjoyed another 5 hours of excellent riding (we had taken 8:10 for the 200km so far). Sorry to have missed the ride over the Mendips, which would have been in daylight btw (@User482 ). My quest to get to 50 AUK points looks as if it will be unrequited, this year anyway, as I shall be unable to ride for at least a month. Hey ho! When I recover my bike I shall ride the hill and try to see where I came off. When I think of the hills I've been down this year, Alfred's one is pretty innocuous (100m drop in a kilometre).



That's awful, GWS. As I descended from the tower, a man was standing in the road telling me to stop - it was the paramedic and you were being loaded in as we walked past. I'm not a fan of that descent - overhanging trees, poor surface, poor sight lines and a narrow road make it pretty risky.


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## Ajax Bay (7 Sep 2017)

Thanks @User482 and @Dogtrousers . The road west from Alfred's Tower seemed fine to me as I started down it (and I think I've been down there before) and consider I was in complete control, but until I go back I will not be able to make a decent objective assessment. I would like to know what made my tyre go (I was not braking much) and examination of the tube (idc - bike is now with the friend I was going to have tea with) will probably not shed much evidence on that. Hey ho! After 25,000km I guess statistics caught up with me, but I'd much prefer they didn't/hadn't. At least it was early in the month so if I can heal well, who knows if I can't keep the 100s going by a ride in late October .


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## Spartak (7 Sep 2017)

@Ajax Bay 

Glad to hear you're on the mend. 

When I passed you shortly after your 'off' you were still lying in the middle of the road looking the worse for wear !!

Your ride partners were looking after you as was a friendly local, the ambulance passed me at speed approx. 10 minutes later. 

GWS & hope to see you on the Jaegar Bomb next year ???

BTW the guys you were riding with passed me on the climb of Charterhouse ..... they were flying !


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## Ajax Bay (4 Oct 2017)

@Spartak @User482 @Dogtrousers The sequel - having picked up my bike at last, and examined the evidence.

Well, exactly one month on from my ‘off’ I have recovered enough to drive. So I took the train up to Bristol/Keynsham to pick up my car (which had been recovered by a friend from the audax start) and then headed down to pick up my bike (which had been in the care of another friend who lives very close to the site of the accident). While there I drove up the hill (it's about 1:10): the scene of the accident - and slowly back down, recognising where my tyre had ‘blown’.
My posts describing/discussing the accident are here:
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/t...challenge-chatzone.95264/page-84#post-4950192
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/t...challenge-chatzone.95264/page-85#post-4952273
Apart from the front wheel my bike is relatively unscathed: the (1970s) Brooks ‘Competition’ saddle has been badly scuffed on the left back corner, but remains functional/useable; and the left hand STI is a bit scratched and was twisted in. The inner tube has a major snakebite in it: 11mm on one side and 9mm on the other, which will have caused/allowed the near instantaneous deflation I remember. There is a significant dink in one side of the rim where the puncture was. And there is damage to the left hand rim edge for about a third of the circumference, consistent with the rim attempting to roll on the road surface before saying ‘enough’. There is damage to the tyre sidewall in this area too. Of interest, the tyre had rotated about 20cm round the wheel (ie the maker’s logo was no longer aligned with the valve). I expect this happened when I tried to brake and the tyre gripped more on the road overcoming the friction between it and the rim.

All this supports my ‘analysis’ that coming down the hill, on the drops (always go on the drops downhill – much ‘stronger’ position and better leverage for braking), fingers lightly on both brakes, I suffered a near instant flat, and, after some immediate (swearing and) braking (which I remember) very shortly afterwards went over the bars landing supine, feet forward, first on my shoulder blade (crack) and that banged in to break ribs, one of which punctured my lung. My head then came down on its left side: the helmet is broken (cracked) and has friction damage. I was unconscious for an undetermined number of minutes. Because of how I fell, the helmet ‘wanted’ to come off: stopped from doing so by the helmet’s underchin strap which cut me and the sidestrap which had a go at my left ear (with a fair bit of blood (ears bleed easily)). This was the only damage to my head (lucky and protected) but my neck got a bit of a bashing – not surface but left/right and up/down stiffness/internal bruising. Substantial bruising (but not grazing) above my shoulder blade suggests I ‘bounced’ on that and serious grazing on my left arm/elbow and left hip suggests that I slid on those two main points till stationary. Other sites of grazing ‘are available’ – all now healed.

Lucky I was that others were right behind me (and called 999 etc). They thought I had gone down the hill ‘too fast’ (I have this on hearsay, third hand) and maybe this is so, but they will not have known that I’d suffered a puncture when descending. Whether this would have altered their judgement I know not. Whether a lesser speed and their riding skills would have allowed them to stay upright in the event of a flat will not be tested, I hope.

I do not know what caused the snakebite to the Continental tube. The tyre (Michelin Pro4 SC 25-622) was new on before London-Edinburgh-London and so had done about 2300km – I’d expect about 6000km from that make/model of tyre on the front. I had checked my tyres before the ride and the front was at 75psi (5psi more than the graph readout in Jan Heine’s BQ article: actual width 26.7mm, total load 85kg, front 38kg, rear 47kg). It is possible it had lost pressure during the 199km I had ridden. I checked the rear 31 days later: it was at 72spsi (same tyre make/model) - I had inflated it to 90psi before the ride). The road was clear and, having examined the surface by both driving up and down it and walking up and down the stretch where the flat occurred, the surface is good, with no potholes. The side of the road is a bank so I guess the only possibility is a largish stone: the sort of stone you can see and avoid as you ride down hills, I’d like to think. Maybe/clearly not this time.

What lessons can I learn from this incident?

1) A ‘fast’ puncture going at speed is likely to cause the rider to crash, especially if any braking or turning is needed.

2) Don’t apply any front brake (or release it if it’s already being used). Shift weight back to get as much effect from the back brake as possible.

3) Stay as straight as possible.

4) Check tyre pressures before each ride. Do a thumb check on each tyre at every stop (well, every couple of hours).

I have decided that the rim cannot be satisfactorily repaired and since the wheel/hub/spokes (Mavic MA3 on a Tiagra HB-4400) have done 25,000+km, it’s not worth lacing a new rim on. And I'm not sure how much damage has been done to the tyre sidewall so I'm reluctantly retiring that (to the bin) too. I have another similar front wheel: an Ambrosio Excursion rim on a 105 32 spoke hub which now has a new Continental GP 4 Seasons 28-622 tyre on, ready for when I’m able to ride again (hopefully in a fortnight or so). The Brooks saddle is off and being saved for long rides next year and the STI is straightened. All good. Almost off the pain killers now – just using for overnight comfort in an effort to achieve more sleep (still a challenge). Just need the bones to complete their healing, and to regain both mobility and strength in my left arm/shoulder and my neck.

Some may suggest I’m ‘overthinking’ this accident. But a month off work and 6+ weeks off the bike gives one ample time for overthinking. I hope some may find some of the facts and analysis interesting.


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## Ajax Bay (4 Oct 2017)

Dogtrousers said:


> always descending hills extremely slowly and cautiously


You'll be fine. I don't descend either slowly or cautiously, unless the narrowness of the road or the bends warrant it, or if I'm behind someone else going slowly. Ironically (perhaps) at the start of the descent, I had deliberately gone ahead of another rider (who had slowed), thus being at the head of a group of 8 ish, because I don't like going down a hill close behind another rider - they may brake heavily or even crash right in front of you, or something.


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## Heltor Chasca (12 Jan 2018)

Does anyone know if LVIS is running this event this year? I’m shopping around for my first 300. I’ve seen another (Heart of England) from Cirencester which is a little less lumpy, but early in the season for a newbie (April)


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## Ajax Bay (12 Jan 2018)

Come down and ride @Ian H 's Old Roads 300 in May. Honiton, Okehampton, Barnstaple, Wiveliscombe, Cheddar and South Petherton (and back to Honiton). Some lovely roads, in May, with an agreeable amount of texture.
PS I can't find the LVIS 300 on the calendar and anyway, you'll be wanting to do a 300 before September.


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## Banjo (14 Jan 2018)

I can recommend Black sheeps Rough Diamond 300 7th july from Bushley near Tewkesbury.


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## Spartak (18 Jan 2018)

Banjo said:


> I can recommend Black sheeps Rough Diamond 300 7th july from Bushley near Tewkesbury.



I'm considering this one....


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## Spartak (18 Jan 2018)

@Heltor Chasca

I've ridden the Heart of England in the past.... Its a good introduction to 300km Audax.


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## the snail (18 Jan 2018)

Spartak said:


> @Heltor Chasca
> 
> I've ridden the Heart of England in the past.... Its a good introduction to 300km Audax.


As is the rough diamond. Nice thing about both is that the lumps are near the start.


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## Spartak (19 Jan 2018)

the snail said:


> As is the rough diamond. Nice thing about both is that the lumps are near the start.



Very good controls on the H of E..... Can remember eating an all day breakfast ( my 2nd of the day ) at 4 in the afternoon.... which was just what I needed.


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