The Imperial Century A Month Challenge Chatzone

[rb58]

I hadn't intended to go for it today, but insomnia struck again and I was up before 5am. I knew I had to be home by lunchtime, so I left the house at 5.30am, planning to go to Yalding and see how I felt (I've not touched a bike for 2 weeks due to illness and holidays). I got to Yalding in good time, in fact too early for the cafe, which hadn't opened yet, so I kept going and followed the usual route to Ashford. It was a lovely morning and it just got better as the world woke up. Ashford by 9.00am; breakfast at the petrol station, then headed back via much the same route. My legs were heavy for the big climbs between miles 80 and 101, but I just eased off, and took an extra break before the last climb (Polhill) and all was good. Home about 1.30pm (10 minutes before Mrs rb58, so brownie points earned) and the June century in the bank. Great to see so many cyclists and runners out today. I especially enjoyed the young guy on Sidcup Hill who clearly wanted a race

I've got three more centuries planned for June, which hopefully will get me back on track for 26 for 2016.

 

[Trickedem]

June was always going to be a tricky month to fit my century in. I am off for two weeks holiday and this Saturday or the last Sunday in the month were the only two days free. This was complicated by me being away last week on business in Iceland and not being due to return until Saturday afternoon. Eventually I had the idea that I could stay an extra day and do a ride in Iceland. To make the journey simpler I decided to take my Brompton, which is great for travelling with, but less good for longer rides. My longest ride to date on it was 64 miles, so doing over a 100 was going to be entering into unknown territory.
There really aren't that many roads once you get away from Reykjavik so planning a route was relatively easy and I had already thought of a couple of tourist sights I would like to visit. However, my friend had warned me about potentially heavy traffic and bad drivers on narrow roads, so I decided it was best to get up really early and I left just before 5am. There was no need for lights as it doesn't get dark in June and it felt a bit weird to be cycling in full daylight so early in the day.
The day was looking promising as I travelled on some very nice cycle paths on the way out of Reykjavik. I didn't see hardly anyone for the first few hours.

After following one of the cycle paths that ridewithgps routed me onto I got a bit lost and ended up on a gravel road. There are loads of these in Iceland and I had taken a lot of time checking my route to avoid them. I had to ride on this for about 4 miles and it wasn't much fun on a Brompton.

I had two big climbs to make on this ride, both over 1200 feet and despite it being June, there was still lots of snow about.

These are a couple of Icelandic horses I spotted. I think they must have a tough life in the Winter, but they seemed to be enjoying the sun.

My first stop on the Tourist trail was Kerið a volcanic crater lake. I walked my bike around it, which was a bit of a mistake as it turned into a bit of rock climb! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerið

The second stop was Þingvellir. This was the site of the first Icelandic Parliament founded in AD930 and is considered to be the cultural centre of Iceland. It is also where the European and American continental plates are dividing, so it is of geological significance too.

This was my second big climb of the day. By now, with over 75 miles done, my legs were starting to feel it, and unfortunately the gearing on my Brompton wasn't low enough for some of the stretches that were over 15%, so I walked a couple of times, which was quicker than cycling anyway.

The great thing was, that I knew it was mainly downhill once I finally got to the top. The road is dead straight and follows the hot water pipe all the way back to Reykjavik. There is a geothermal plant at the top of the mountain that is used to generate electricity and hot water, which is then pumped 20 miles all the way to town. Impressive stuff!

So all in all a successful day. My longest Brompton ride to date and I am growing to love the little folder. It's not perfect and it's slower than a full sized bike, but the convenience of travelling makes up for it.
https://www.strava.com/activities/598358986

 

[StuAff]

June was always going to be a tricky month to fit my century in. I am off for two weeks holiday and this Saturday or the last Sunday in the month were the only two days free. This was complicated by me being away last week on business in Iceland and not being due to return until Saturday afternoon. Eventually I had the idea that I could stay an extra day and do a ride in Iceland. To make the journey simpler I decided to take my Brompton, which is great for travelling with, but less good for longer rides. My longest ride to date on it was 64 miles, so doing over a 100 was going to be entering into unknown territory.
There really aren't that many roads once you get away from Reykjavik so planning a route was relatively easy and I had already thought of a couple of tourist sights I would like to visit. However, my friend had warned me about potentially heavy traffic and bad drivers on narrow roads, so I decided it was best to get up really early and I left just before 5am. There was no need for lights as it doesn't get dark in June and it felt a bit weird to be cycling in full daylight so early in the day.
The day was looking promising as I travelled on some very nice cycle paths on the way out of Reykjavik. I didn't see hardly anyone for the first few hours.

View attachment 130971

After following one of the cycle paths that ridewithgps routed me onto I got a bit lost and ended up on a gravel road. There are loads of these in Iceland and I had taken a lot of time checking my route to avoid them. I had to ride on this for about 4 miles and it wasn't much fun on a Brompton.

View attachment 130965

I had two big climbs to make on this ride, both over 1200 feet and despite it being June, there was still lots of snow about.

View attachment 130966

These are a couple of Icelandic horses I spotted. I think they must have a tough life in the Winter, but they seemed to be enjoying the sun.

View attachment 130967

My first stop on the Tourist trail was Kerið a volcanic crater lake. I walked my bike around it, which was a bit of a mistake as it turned into a bit of rock climb! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerið

View attachment 130968

The second stop was Þingvellir. This was the site of the first Icelandic Parliament founded in AD930 and is considered to be the cultural centre of Iceland. It is also where the European and American continental plates are dividing, so it is of geological significance too.

View attachment 130976


This was my second big climb of the day. By now, with over 75 miles done, my legs were starting to feel it, and unfortunately the gearing on my Brompton wasn't low enough for some of the stretches that were over 15%, so I walked a couple of times, which was quicker than cycling anyway.

View attachment 130969

The great thing was, that I knew it was mainly downhill once I finally got to the top. The road is dead straight and follows the hot water pipe all the way back to Reykjavik. There is a geothermal plant at the top of the mountain that is used to generate electricity and hot water, which is then pumped 20 miles all the way to town. Impressive stuff! View attachment 130970

So all in all a successful day. My longest Brompton ride to date and I am growing to love the little folder. It's not perfect and it's slower than a full sized bike, but the convenience of travelling makes up for it.
https://www.strava.com/activities/598358986
View attachment 130982

Great effort, and what a place to ride. Wow.

 

[Donger]

Iceland on a Brompton! Epic stuff!

 

[Soltydog]

@Trickedem top effort, that looks the most impressive ton

 

[Supersuperleeds]

June done. I basically repeated Aprils ride to work but extended it to 112 miles when I realised I was going to be early.

 

[Aravis]

June's century is done - log updated.

Having been off the bike for 17 days, starting out again in something of a heatwave was always going to be an interesting test. I set out at about 5:15 which avoided the strongest heat for the first half of the ride, definitely a good tactic. My route took me along familiar roads to Hereford, from where I took the A4110 northwards. I used to use this road when heading out on Youth Hostelling trips in the 1980s (Clun was always a favourite) but I found I had no memory of it whatsoever. I was feeling quite good so I continued to the village of Wigmore before taking the minor road over the big hill to Ludlow. On another day there would have been stupendous views northwards to the glorious Shropshire hills, but yesterday I could just about see to the other side of the next valley. Ludlow castle still looked impressive though.

Although the river Teme heads purposefully across to join the Severn at Worcester, there is no road consistently following it for its full length, so some energetic cycling in the fully heat of the afternoon was inevitable. I tried a new route - a B road up to Bromyard and then a minor road along a valley joining the Teme again just before Worcester. This was one of those downhill valley roads which keep going upwards. Very pretty but annoying, and probably not to be seen again. I knew I would be on familiar ground soon, and there was the wonderful roadside tap in Upton-upon-Severn to look forward to.

About 5 miles from home there is a short rise at about 1 in 5 which I've included at the end of several recent rides - quite a satisfying way to finish. Strava tells me I set a PB yesterday, but it didn't feel like it. At the top a heavy shower cloud came into view which earlier on I might have been quite glad to see, but at that stage I didn't really want a dirty bike. Thankfully I made it home with only a few heavy spots.

So that was a fairly choppy 119 miles on a hot day following a break. I haven't managed to set myself up for the 200 mile attempt yet, but yesterday does suggest that I should be able to get there reasonably quickly if I can find the opportunity. That won't be in the next few weeks because I'm heading off to the Isle of Mull. This will be a silver wedding celebration, and it would not be appropriate to suggest taking my bike with me...

 

[StuAff]

Centurions meet-up in Brighton still on for July 3? It got mentioned on the IOW last week, so thought I'd check...

 

[ianrauk]

Centurions meet-up in Brighton still on for July 3? It got mentioned on the IOW last week, so thought I'd check...

Still the plan..will post a thread up later.

 

[Soltydog]

Got my June ride done today. Not ideal conditions 1st thing, but today was my last chance for the month apart from 30th but that would be cutting it a little fine

 

[HLaB]

Did my banker at the start of the month the ToC where I qualified and a post pub recovery ride but I knew I had this ride coming up yesterday so its logged.

 

[rhm]

On my century last Saturday I tried to take enough photos that I could give a bit of a tour of eastern Long Island, NY, for those who haven't had the pleasure of riding there. It was a lovely day for it, bright and sunny and not terribly hot. Normally the wind is from the west, so I ride east along the shore where the wind is strong. This puts me in the relatively protected interior of the island in the afternoon when I'd be fighting the headwind by the shore. Unfortunately on Saturday it was from the east, so that plan didn't work out all that well... but it was still a lovely day for a ride.

Okay, so that's the route. From about mile 17 to 27, we're on the barrier island, just a short distance from the ocean, but you never see it from the road. Looking straight ahead at about mile 23:

The ocean is hidden behind dunes lined with expensive homes. Looking south at about mile 22:

The view to the north, however, is pretty open. There are tidal pools just a few feet from the road, and the birds (herons in this case) fly up when bicycles go by. This is about mile 23:

The bridge from the barrier island back to the 'mainland' island:

Looking west from the top of that bridge:

A little later there's a professional level golf course. I'm told all American golf courses are designed to look like Scotland, but this is one of the only ones that succeeds if only slightly:

After that we were in low rolling hills covered with a thin oak forest:

followed by a fairly busy road where I couldn't use the camera. There were occasional glimpses of the Peconic Bay to the north until we took a ferry to Shelter Island. We took a detour out to the easternmost part of Shelter Island, which is Ram's Island:

There are several ospreys' nests along that road, often right by the road, so you see them both in their nests:

and flying:

We also saw a family of turkeys (three hens and three chicks... a modern family of some sort, I suppose):

Another ferry to the north fork of the island:

an old fire boat being restored at Greenport:

A lighthouse on the northern shore, high over Long Island Sound. You can see Connecticut from here (but not worth a photo):

Later on, back through the forest. It's fairly open forest, oak and pine, with blueberry bushes underneath:

My bike, an old Lambert converted to fixed gear:

We rode pretty hard, about eight hours of riding at an average speed between 14 and 15 mph, but also long rests adding up to another four hours, for breakfast, lunch (complete with beer and Long Island Ice Tea) and ice cream.

 

[ianrauk]

@rhm
I've been to Port Washington and erm... that's it.
How much would I like to do the ride you just did? I don't think I can spread my arms wide enough.
Great stuff.

 

[Cold Snail]

Knee's feeling better now, so scratched the 400k off the list at the weekend in Essex on the Kingdom of the East Saxons audax.
It definitely was two different days. With a chain snapping 5k in, then hard charging (for me) catch-up first day (with gentle gear changes as the chain wasn't in the best shape), then an hours kip back at the hall at 2am, to having a phlegm filled throat and wheezing like an old steam train at the sign of any gradient for the Sunday.
I'm looking at that SR badge now, so the Flatlander perm may be on the radar next month.

 

[Aravis]

I did July's qualifying ride yesterday and updated the log.

I'd been off the bike since last month's ride - nothing physical, just hasn't been possible. I wanted to do something a bit more testing than a run of the mill century, and a target I set myself many years ago is to ride three 150 milers in a year. Over the years I've done very few - 9 out of 240 centuries at the start of this year, and never more than 2 in one year.

Yesterday I tried a new route to the top of the Cotswold escarpment near Stroud. The climb itself was much easier than other routes in the area, as I'd expected, but to get to it I had to use the A46 between Stroud and Nailsworth in the rush hour, and that wasn't nice. So the jury's out on that. Next was an amble through the Cotswold Water Park towards Wootton Bassett, a steep climb up a chalk escarpment before riding through the magnificent Avebury stone circle. Onwards over some more chalk uplands towards Devizes, on the way hearing a corn bunting for the first time in decades. From there I passed through Melksham, Lacock (where practically every historical drama is filmed), Chippenham, Tiddleywink (I kid you not), and Castle Combe, before fighting my way back to the A38 and a wind-assisted run back to Gloucester. That would have been about 127 miles, but instead of heading for home I veered off to the left and did an easy loop to take me over the 150. So just one more of those needed this year.

One incident that made me smile: I wanted to turn right off a single carriageway A road. It was quite busy and I wasn't happy about slowing down in the middle, holding up the traffic while waiting for a gap in the flow coming the other way. Then I saw that the next van coming up behind wanted to go the same way, solving my problem. I nipped across in front of a vehicle approaching, and as the road was very narrow, pulled over and waited a few seconds for the van to come through. Seeing what I'd done he gave me an appreciative toot.

A word about my bike: an aluminium-framed Raleigh tourer bought new in 2005 for about £350. It performs brilliantly. Everything apart from standard consumables and the saddle is original, including the bar tape, wrapped from the centre outwards, glory be. The wheels would be shunned with horror by many; certainly balancing the bearings can be a bit tricky, but whenever I find myself freewheeling with other cyclists they seem to perform as well as anyone's.

By riding 151 miles after a month off, I think I've proved that my level of fitness is extremely modest and doesn't need much maintaining. Most of this year I've been unnecessarily paranoid about losing it should I have a short break. If I were to list my rides according to how good they've made me feel, this one would be right up there.