Spring into the Dales 2010 (Yorkshire Dales!)

[Riding in Circles]

Urgh. I failed it. DNF for me.

I made it to Keighley at 5pm, 15 minutes after the control closed.

I just couldn't face the long climb back through Oxenhope, and there was no way I would have made it back. I was averaging 8mph, and there were 12 miles back to the start.

I got a Taxi back to the start.

58.9 miles (94.8km) Avg speed 8.7 mph (14kmh) while I was moving. Total time on the bike 6:46.

8 hours altogether, although I spent a lot of that walking up the hills in the second half. My legs were dead by the end of it.

I should have done the shorter ride.

You gave it a go, that's what counts, no point killing yourself in the process.

 

[zacklaws]

Another good day out, and good company, my heads still rocking with the motion of being on my bike. Managed to get lost seconds after driving out of the car park, knew where I had to go, and so did sat nav, but some part of my body said different, then sat nav packed in, then twigged I'd forgot to plug it into car, then got lost again in Halifax. I seem to have had a bit too much bad luck today, especially falling off again. One day I'll get it right.

Links to Maps to use in Training Centre and map source, I think its the maps in the second link you can use in an Edge 705:-

http://garmin.na1400.info/routable.php

http://talkytoaster.info/ukmaps.htm

Think I caught the sun I'm burning up. Off for some beer/s now.
Looking forward to the next one, if there's any with about 7000+ of descending that might be better for a change.

 

[zacklaws]

Urgh. I failed it. DNF for me.

Don't be despondent by what you did, to attempt that on a fixed with 61" is something to hold your head up too, That gear is a bigger gear than my lowest on my double, and i would not have managed the ride on my double, so it was a damm good effort. I was cranking myself up some of them hills on a gear half the size and that was tough enough, so don't let it get you down.

My stats were, 7hrs 58min (total time, I did not have auto pause turned on) and a 8.8mph average.

 

[Rammylad]

A fantastic route which is (only) slightly let down by a hefty chunk of urban cycling. Really enjoyed my first Audax and already thumbing through the events list for more. Thanks for the good company guys.

 

[Amanda P]

I had a good day out. I'm sorry not to have ridden with Colin and the rest of you, but there you go. I don't know how we missed each other.

I navigated myself round (I'd been counting on Colin's GPS) and spent most of the time (when I wasn't panting) talking to a string of people who passed me or to myself.

Towards the end, climbing that steady hill out of Keighley, I was caught up behind a bunch of club riders. They were going just a little bit slower than I wanted to, but there was so much passing traffic it was hard to pass. When a gap in the traffic finally came, it wasn't very big, so I had to blast past quickly. Then, when I'd done that, I couldn't very well slow down again, so I kept going. Their sarcastic comments only made me more determined that they wouldn't catch me.

They did in the end, but only on the descent into Hebden Bridge - not on the climb.

 

[ColinJ]

What a disappointment I can't do either of these events today! ...Boo hoo!

Bad luck Paul. Hopefully you will back to full fitness in time for the sister event in October - Season of Mists.

Hope you lot enjoy the day out, seems like decent weather. Planned on going out but had a sleep in so think I'll hit the turbo whilst watching Amstel Gold.

It was not as warm as on Saturday but I preferred it because I would have baked otherwise. Could have done without the chilly breeze though. We spotted some patches of snow on distant hills in the Dales!

I enjoyed watching Amstel Gold last night - that's one seriously hard and mad race! Relentless little hills, riders going crazy hopping onto pavements and swerving round posts, parked vehicles on the racing line just round tight bends...

Just got back home, Did the main ride in 5'10 including stops, about 4'45 ride time.

Good effort. I think my best ever was just over 6 hours with about 30 minutes of stops.

... sorry I was antisocial but I wanted to press on this year and see how fast I could do it.

It was nice to see you, Arch and several other people I know at the start but I knew that I'd be riding in a fairly small group and just aiming to get round comfortably inside the time limit.

Did mine in in 6.10 with newcommer Turbo, who was convinced he was slowing me down, but i could'nt of gone much faster to be honest; 3 training rides last week (bad idea) left me with very little juice in the legs.

Also a good effort! Are you doing the Red Rose Ride again this year? I hope to and will aim to do it at least 2 hours quicker. Not having my back brake rubbing for 125 miles would probably help with that!

Oh gosh, yes, I was very pleased with myself - I wasn't last! And there were some stunning views.

...

Anyway, the training has started. I've got 3 years to get up to speed.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I particularly like Newsholme Dean.

I rode round there with goodspeed last year and was amazed that we could be so close to Keighley and yet still feel like we were in the middle of nowhere.

Another good day out, and good company, my heads still rocking with the motion of being on my bike.

...

I seem to have had a bit too much bad luck today, especially falling off again. One day I'll get it right.

It was nice to ride with you again.

Zack's chain jammed on an 18% climb and he couldn't unclip in time and fell heavily to his right. I think he was really lucky not to have hurt himself! He didn't even seem to have the usual cuts and bruises from such a fall.

There was a steep hillside just to the side of the lane and he could have easily gone tumbling down that still attached to his bike.

[Hulver] Don't be despondent by what you did, to attempt that on a fixed with 61" is something to hold your head up too...

I'd second that! We went past hulver just as he dismounted on the steep bit of Penistone Hill near Oxenhope. I thought then what a hard ride he was taking on on his Langster. I'd never have even got as far as Keighley.

A fantastic route which is (only) slightly let down by a hefty chunk of urban cycling. Really enjoyed my first Audax and already thumbing through the events list for more. Thanks for the good company guys.

I mentioned the Keighley section on last year's thread but to be honest, it isn't really a practical proposition to miss it out. There are alternatives but they are very tough and wouldn't go down well with the majority of riders.

It's 90% a gorgeous route so I can put up with the urban 10%!

I had a good day out. I'm sorry not to have ridden with Colin and the rest of you, but there you go. I don't know how we missed each other.

I assumed that you'd decided to go on by yourself!

I'd got chatting to some people I knew at the front of the crowd of cyclists before the start and then remembered that I'd said that I'd be standing at the back of the group. The trouble is, I couldn't get through the crowd so I had to wait for most of them to surge past me.

I'm glad that you had a nice day out despite missing us.

Towards the end, climbing that steady hill out of Keighley, I was caught up behind a bunch of club riders. They were going just a little bit slower than I wanted to, but there was so much passing traffic it was hard to pass. When a gap in the traffic finally came, it wasn't very big, so I had to blast past quickly. Then, when I'd done that, I couldn't very well slow down again, so I kept going. Their sarcastic comments only made me more determined that they wouldn't catch me.

There are some funny people in the world aren't there! What's that all about?

Well, it was nice to ride round at a steady pace with zacklaws, Rammylad and Alun. Zack and Rammy were definitely stronger than me and Alun so they tended to pull ahead on the climbs and Alun and I would ride up to them at our own pace.

Alun has definitely improved since last year. We did almost exactly the same time as last year (a smidge over 8 hours including some long cafe stops and photo-opportunities) but this time Alun didn't walk up any of the climbs.

I'm heavier and less fit than I was for last year's SITD and felt it! I had made the mistake on Friday of picking up my tumble dryer and carrying it from one room to another and I sprained my back so I had backache before even starting yesterday. I dropped my bike off at home before walking round to the finish. I struggled on the stairs to the top floor of Salem Mill!

I think that a message is slowly sinking in... doing these tough hilly rides at my current level of fitness is taking too much out of me. I need to get fitter so I can either push myself to do a good time, or relax and not suffer.

Spooky Tree, Spooky Cyclists

They Don't Make Club Houses Like That Any More!

 

[trio25]

Sounds like you all had a great time....but no one has mentioned the cakes yet?

 

[ColinJ]

Sounds like you all had a great time....but no one has mentioned the cakes yet?

Okay, in chronological order:

• Control at Earby: The 'gannets' had descended and eaten nearly everything before we got there! We did get some nice biscuits and I took a spare little pack to nibble on the way round.
• Control at Gargrave: The lads had some very nice-looking ice creams. I made do with a can of Coke and some more of those biscuits.
• Control at Rossi's Keighley: Between us we had apple pie, scones with jam, cheese and onion crisps, ice cream (I think).
• Event HQ: Still plenty of goodies left when we got back. I had cheese and beetroot sandwiches with pickle, and tuna sandwiches, and slices of choc-chip cake, oh and some more sandwiches and 2 coffees!

 

[Amanda P]

I arrived at Gargrave during a rush, but got a sausage sandwich and an excellent mug of tea after a recuperating wait. They were doing a roaring trade in ice creams.

Rossi's had sold almost all their cakes. There was a chap polishing off the last bit of coffee cake as I was queueing for my stamp. (Whoever he is, I hate him!)

The food back at HQ was excellent though. All you could ask for and more. I was only put off my food by the thought of possibly seeing a photo of myself struggling up a hill projected life-size on the wall for everyone to see...

Oh yes, and I last cycled the bit between Bolton Abbey and Halton East while suffering from food poisoning. I inched my way along on pure willpower, wishing I could get rid of the contents of my stomach but unable to. Yesterday was a much happier experience. I even had an MTBer hold the gate open for me! (Whoever he is, I love him!)

 

[zacklaws]

Overall I made the ride 7hrs 54 mins 69.17 miles, average speed of 8.7mph according to Sporttracks, WKO+ reckons 7hrs 57mins and we climbed 7340 feet. As for stoppage time according to WKO+ 25.9% of the ride, otherwise 2hrs 3 minutes I was not moving, so I have to presume that is all our break time including road junctions, falling off, etc. I cannot be more definite with that figure as I had my clock running permanently with no auto pauses so no pause time was recorded.

I did make an error with my Garmin and after I had got a few miles out of Hebden Bridge going home realised that my Garmin was still running so turned the timer off as it would be recording, then thought as I could not see the screen, I may not have turned the timer off, so I switched it off completley. But when I downloaded the info, I saw that I had turned it off after the ride, so in reality turned it back on so it recorded some driving home for a few miles, but I have now edited that bit out.

At one point on the ride, I got a bit bored with going up hills and sick of seeing them for about 10mins, just after the short stretch on the A59 but after going up the hill on Cringles lane when we turned off the A59, I got back into it.

One of my biggest fears was the Keighley bit as I hate riding through big towns, especially in a group, but fortunatley Keighley was not the busy place I thought it would be with suicidal pedestrians and car doors opening so I was quite pleased with that stretch.

In fact just remembered about and no ones posted about poor old "Buster", that must have been another 5 seconds to stoppage time

 

[Arch]

I'd second that! We went past hulver just as he dismounted on the steep bit of Penistone Hill near Oxenhope. I thought then what a hard ride he was taking on on his Langster. I'd never have even got as far as Keighley.

Fixed, I'd never have got out of the Hebden Bridge boundary!B)

bad luck Hulver, I can only be awestruck that you made it as far as you did!

I was thinking, maybe by the Autumn, I'll feel up to taking on the Season of Mists. I'm glad I opted for the shorter ride this time, I think doubling it would have been too much for my legs.

That first climb though, out of HB on the Keighley road. I think that'll go in my book of 'climbs worth doing because...', the 'because' in this case being the opportunity to turn round and freewheel all the way back down!

(I've often thought it would be good, for a hill-a-phobe like me, to have a book of hills that are worth struggling up because of something at the top - a cafe, a really stunning view, a pub, an interesting folly etc... Not all climbs qualify just because of freewheeling back down again, some are too short or sharp or scary, but that was a nice descent, and I managed to drag myself up it with a spare gear in the box).

Someone at the start, possibly trying to encourage me, possibly trying to scare the hell out of me, said that they thought the Leap was, on a ratio of climb to distance, harder than the Spring. But the extra miles would have killed me.

 

[ColinJ]

In fact just remembered about and no ones posted about poor old "Buster", that must have been another 5 seconds to stoppage time

Buster now has his 5 seconds of fame! B)

 

[longers]

I was jealous while thinking of you all. Except perhaps Hulver, well done for the attempt though sir, how are the legs today?

 

[hulver]

I was jealous while thinking of you all. Except perhaps Hulver, well done for the attempt though sir, how are the legs today?

They're still aching. I am kicking myself for not attempting the final 10 miles now. A mars bar and a can of coke at Rossi's would have sorted me out. I wouldn't have made it in time, but at least I'd have finished. I'd already given up in my head though when I realised I was out of time at the final control.

There was a lady who was just setting off from there when I got to it. I wonder if she made it in time, she had about an hour left to do the final leg.

 

[Amanda P]

(I've often thought it would be good, for a hill-a-phobe like me, to have a book of hills that are worth struggling up because of something at the top - a cafe, a really stunning view, a pub, an interesting folly etc... Not all climbs qualify just because of freewheeling back down again, some are too short or sharp or scary, but that was a nice descent, and I managed to drag myself up it with a spare gear in the box).

Blakey Ridge is worth climbing (north from Hutton-le-Hole, in the NY Moors) because of the Lion Inn at the top. And funnily enough, we've been thinking about suggesting this as a destination for another CC ride.