The Imperial Century A Month Challenge Chatzone

[ianrauk]

This months qualifying ride done and dusted with the Oasts and Coasts 300k Audax.
Leaving at home at 4am to cycle to the start. Boy it was cold and windy. This was going to be a tough ride. About 100 hardy souls left Meopham at 6am into thankfully a north wind pushing us at a rapid pace south stopping for breakfast at Uckfield. Now heading east the wind made for harder going. To Battle, across the marshes to Hythe, climbing the twin thigh burners of Capel Le Fern at Folkestone and Dover Hill past the impressive castle. Now we were heading north. That's when the headwind hit hardest, making for hard and slower progress. The glorious Key Lime pie at the stop at Deal made up a bit for the hard work the wind was putting us through. But once we got to Minnis Bay we thankfully turned west which made for much easier going. Stopping at Herne Bay at 7pm for more fuelling (A sausage roll and Jam Roly Poly and custard for me and massive feasts of fish and chips for my cycling companions. By this time, Herne bay was treating us to a most stunning of sunsets. Now it was really cold, the temperature had dropped quite a bit. We were all feeling the cold. Through a car busy Whitstable we hit the Graveny marshes. Flat as the proverbial pancake but prone to headwinds. Luckily the winds was with us and we traversed them at a rapid pace. Climbing up the downs in the pitch black we picked up a couple of other fellow Audaxers and we were now 5. Making our way along the Pilgrims Way over the Medway and a few more little lumps before arriving back at base at 11.30pm. I still wasn't finished though as I had another 15 miles back to home. Walking through the door just after 1am.
A long old day on the bike, a cold one, but a great one never the less. A massive thanks to Tom Jackson for the brilliant route and organisation and even bigger thanks to my 2 cycling companions for the day, Tony and Hugh and all the other riders I spoke and rode with.
So, scores on the doors.
220 miles for the day. (354km's for my non UK friends)
Imperial Century Month 161 in a row.
Imperial Century #338

That's France over there

Herne Bay

Reculver

Bluebells

Key Lime Pie at Deal

 

[13 rider]

Still in Aprils done but did fear the worst ,cycled up to Whaley Bridge on Tuesday to stay a few days with my sister who was on holiday . Did 77 miles going up did think about extending it but the thought of more hills put me off. I wasn't feeling great on Tuesday then went down with a proper cold but with the only today with favourable weather I plotted a route trying too do as little climbing as possible but get the distance still did 5800ft of upness a real slog at the end but I'm over the line 101 imperial miles

 

[Supersuperleeds]

May done. Glorious weather, rode south east down to near Stratford, loop back round and headed home, 103 miles and it was warm enough (eventually) for short sleeves. Will update the logging thread later.

 

[robjh]

Got May's ride in yesterday, Saturday 4th.

One of our local cycling groups was doing a 90-mile ride along the Norfolk coast from King's Lynn to Great Yarmouth, and I decided to extend that by riding the 50ish miles up to the start to meet them. I set out at 4am and was treated to a magnificent dawn as I rode up the empty main road through Ely and Downham Market, and arrived in very good time at KL at 7.30. I found an early-opening café and had breakfast while waiting for the others to arrive by train.
We then had a great day riding through North Norfolk, on minor roads parallel to the coast, but avoiding the main road which gets very busy on warm weekends such as this. Had a spate of punctures near Sandringham, then a first snack break at Binham Priory, reaching Cromer about 1.30. It was absolutely heaving with Bank Holiday crowds here and we didn't get down to the seafront, but sat on a wall with some takeaways.
At Happisburgh we stopped for me to assess the current state of coastal erosion - I've been coming since 1984 and places that I knew then have disappeared into the sea. Then we finished with an increasingly mad dash for Great Yarmouth to try and make a train, which we nonetheless missed. Luckily they were quite frequent but we still had to split across two trains as our 8 bikes exceeded the limit for one.

I finished on 150.1 miles.
Number of consecutive months with a 100+mile ride : 65. Number of 100+ mile rides ever : 144.

At Cromer - me in orange at front

 

[ianrauk]

May's qualifying ride done and dusted with this weekends cycling shenanigans.
The Hop Garden Audax in Kent. A fairly lumpy, rolling ride through the Kent lanes, the first half mostly following the at times gravelly Pilgrims Way down to Hythe with the second half on far better, smoother, quicker tarmac. Birling Hill over the downs never disappoints at the end of a long ride, taking a few riders new to the area by surprise. A fantastic, very warm, very sunny day from start to finish. I'm feeling a bit crispy even though I did cover myself with factor 50 at the start of the day. A fabulous bonus was seeing a Spitfire doing loops and a barrel roll over the Kent Weald.
Scores on the doors. 135 miles for the day (217km)
Imperial century #339
Imperial Month #162 in a row.
Back on the cycle commute this morning.

 

[13 rider]

I'm finally over the line for May ,6 days later than planned ,bike was all prepped last Saturday night for an early morning start , I woke in the night in agony with a back spasm and struggled to even get out of bed , Spent the next today's in pain I was ok sitting and walking the the transition between the 2 was painful . I did fear the worse but thankfully after a couple of days thinks eased so out early this morning .103 miles from Leicester south around Rugby grabbing a few Velo viewer squares and back , Have Junes planned for the 1st ,I think if I keep leaving late each month I may eventually get caught out

 

[footloose crow]

I managed May's imperial yesterday with a 210km (131 miles) audax which was surprisingly enjoyable despite rain and headwinds. June now beckons.

 

[13 rider]

For a change I've gone nice an early this month , me and @Supersuperleeds completed our first Audax a big loop of rolling terrain around Oundle in Northants into Cambridgeshire and Leicestershire and possibly Rutland . 104 miles under a heavy cloud all day ,Arm warmers stayed on all day ,Sun came out when I drove onto @Supersuperleeds driveway , Lovely day out

 

[Supersuperleeds]

As @13 rider said, we both did our first Audax today, doing 104 miles in total, was a bit more up and down than I normally do and like, but we got round. Considering it is now June it was a quite cool, arm warmers and woolly gloves stayed on all day for me.

Edit: Big thank you to @13 rider for driving

 

[robjh]

For a change I've gone nice an early this month , me and @Supersuperleeds completed our first Audax a big loop of rolling terrain around Oundle in Northants into Cambridgeshire and Leicestershire and possibly Rutland . 104 miles under a heavy cloud all day ,Arm warmers stayed on all day ,Sun came out when I drove onto @Supersuperleeds driveway , Lovely day out
View attachment 732601

We were in Oundle today, twice, on a Cambridge-Melton Mowbray ride. There were a good few other cyclists round - I wonder if our paths crossed?
This was also my century for June, more of which later.

 

[13 rider]

We were in Oundle today, twice, on a Cambridge-Melton Mowbray ride. There were a good few other cyclists round - I wonder if our paths crossed?
This was also my century for June, more of which later.

We rolled out of Oundle at 8.15 and we're back by 15.30 ,there was about 75 on the Audax the longer 200km route went up to Rutland water your probably have been on the same routes as them but it is possible our paths crossed ,amazing coincidence if we did crosspaths

 

[robjh]

We rolled out of Oundle at 8.15 and we're back by 15.30 ,there was about 75 on the Audax the longer 200km route went up to Rutland water your probably have been on the same routes as them but it is possible our paths crossed ,amazing coincidence if we did crosspaths

We were there about 9.30 outbound and 5pm on the way back. So no doubt we crossed some of the same roads even if not at the same times.

 

[robjh]

Got my ride for June done today, the first of the month, and incidentally probably passed close to where @Supersuperleeds and @13 rider were doing theirs at the same time.

It was a group ride consisting of people from various Cambridge clubs and cycling groups, to Melton Mowbray and back. We were following the route of a now defunct audax that we know as the Pork Pie, although only one of our members was actually registering it with Audax UK as a DIY, the rest of us were just out for a good ride - and we got it.
It's fairly flat until Oundle at about 36 miles, and this was our first break - the town is well endowed with coffee shops and popular with cyclists. It then becomes much lumpier through Rutland and up to Melton, and we had a headwind for all of the way out. We didn't stay too long in Melton, but a few of us made straight for the pie shop and bought trophy pork pies to take home. The hills after Melton seemed to be the steepest, on a slightly different route from the inbound one, but at least we now had a tailwind, and we felt the benefit of this on the flatter run back from Oundle. Cambridge to Cambridge was 136 miles, and took us 13 hours from 7am to 8pm, but some of that was the group effect where all stops take longer and everyone waits for each other's mechanicals or other struggles.

Despite lack of sunshine and unseasonal cool it was a great day out, and my door to door total was 159.5 miles.

The pie.

 

[footloose crow]

June ride

Solo ride (no one I know likes riding this far) and my sixth century this year, having only done a few in the previous four years. I have learnt how to cope psychologically and now feel confident I can do the distance although it is never an easy day out. I had wanted to head east for Looe for quite a while as I hadn't been further than Fowey before. The day was sunny but not warm with a keen north wind to keep me in arm warmers and gilet most of the day. Once over the ferry across the Fowey river it was a long climb onto the hills behind the coast and then undulating views in all directions before the plunge down into Looe.

Looe was exceptionally busy but instead of just carrying on as I normally would, I tried a new strategy of sitting down in a cafe and eating something. The cafe patrons gave me the distinct impression that they didn't often see an old bloke in lycra!

The section between Looe and Liskeard, now heading north away from the sea, is all on tiny lanes following as closely as possible to the Looe river. I didn't see a single car for over 25km, just empty lanes, daisy lined, overhung with oaks and alder and sycamore bursting with life. Then onto Bodmin Moor, more single track lanes with grass up the middle, still quiet but with ever increasing views across southern Cornwall until Brown Willy the highest hill on the moor came into view. A quick stop at Jamaica Inn (as in Daphne du Maurier, smugglers etc) and then a long, mainly downhill ride across the moor.

More food at Lanhydrock at the National Trust cafe, so unusual for me to stop twice! It is a slog from there on familiar roads and against a growing headwind for the last 45km. As you all know, you just have to put your brain in neutral and spin the legs and the kilometres are sucked up by the tyres.

It was a good day out, sublime views, no concerns that I wouldn't be able to do it. Some long and steep hills with a lot of up and down but thats Cornwall. Most routes here of 150-200 km come with even more up hilliness.

 

[13 rider]

@footloose crow I hope the Cornish hills haven't been fully tourist reinflated yet , I'm down on Saturday hoping the weathers improving . Question are the roadworks still affecting A30 crossings around Zelah so I can get to the Truro area from Newquay .