The Metric Century (100KM) A Month Challenge ChatZone

[Osprey]

May's ride in the bag and my first imperial century too. The Carten 100 charity ride from Cardiff to Tenby. Slow and easy was the order of the day and the 106 miles eased by. A well organised superb coastal and countryside ride. Well recommended. https://www.strava.com/activities/1567931522

 

[Katherine]

I've done 189 miles this week! The club century on bh Monday, a bimble on Friday evening and 65 miles today!
Back to more sedate miles next week.

 

[ColinJ]

I was hoping to get an imperial century in on nickyboy's Llandudno ride yesterday, but events conspired against me. Still, I managed to do an enjoyable 146 km in sunny conditions, so I am not complaining!

 

[Sbudge]

Morning all, May's sorted at the second attempt (last week's attempt was cut short by multiple punctures). The weather forecast said it should be dry until 6pm or later...obviously the heavens opened at 1:30! 3 hours riding in constant rain and 7 degrees, what joy. Getting traction up the 20% sections was a little interesting at times when the roads were awash but at least it meant the thorns of last week were washed away. :-)

 

[Fiona R]

May's ride done. Combined helping a very unfit and inexperienced friend slowly around the British Heart Foundation's Cotswold Ride (the 30 mile version) with riding much faster to and from Cheltenham Racecourse at the start/finish. 101.4km. Still in the game .... that's 41 months now. And got my imperial Eddington Number up to 55 too. All in glorious sunshine.

Me too, although I rode the 50 miler on Sunday with a friend who has hardly ridden in a year, and my husband, lovely day out again. only 80km on Sunday. Weather was incredible, even better that the weekend initially was going to be two drizzly days. Good for you for rounding up and super speeding that bit.

Qualifying May ride (even though I'm out technically ) was the South Glos Audax on Saturday round Tetbury/Stroud way. Stunning route, was going to ride home and add another 30km but ride buddy wasn't feeling too good so had to call on the husband to pick us up.

So this weekend I rode within a mile of two houses we used to live in in Minchinhampton nr Stroud and Alderton nr Winchcombe. Wish I had ridden a bike back then. 250km this week.

 

[ColinJ]

@GuyBoden just suggested that I 'advertise' one of my coming forum rides so here is the 'ad'...

I and various CC stalwarts will be doing my annual 200 km forum ride in Cheshire on June 2nd and you would be welcome to join us. It is a very easy double metric century as long as you have the endurance for it. We don't ride quickly, we have 2 good cafe stops, and there are no significant hills on the route. (I had no problems doing the whole ride on a singlespeed bike with a 52/19 gear ratio.)

To get that double metric century in you would have to start from the centre of Manchester. Littgull and I will be doing that so you could meet us there and ride out with us. We use nickyboy's "escape route" from the city, the one used on his Llandudno ride on Saturday. I am no fan of urban riding, but this stretch isn't too bad as long as you keep your wits about you and avoid riding too close to the tramlines on a couple of roads (@Littgull is probably blushing as he reads this because I had to bellow at him last year to save him from the 'tramline of misery'!) ...

TBH though, the escape route is a necessary evil rather than something to be savoured. A nicer (and easier) option is to start from Dunham. We can pick you up there and you would still get an imperial century in round Cheshire without having to go into Manchester at all.

If you like the sound of 200 km with us, or 100 miles, or even 100 km if you join us for a shorter part of the ride in Cheshire (we'd sort something out!) - nip over to the ride thread HERE and add your name to the list.

PS Other metric century+ forum ride options coming up that I am organising and/or riding include Humber Bridge (June 9th, 100 miles - flat), Chester-Llandudno (June 30th, 100 miles - very hilly), Yorkshire Dales (July 7th, a 'long' metric century - very hilly) and Knaresborough (July 21st, 100 km - moderately hilly). See rides forum for details.

 

[Littgull]

@GuyBoden just suggested that I 'advertise' one of my coming forum rides so here is the 'ad'...

I and various CC stalwarts will be doing my annual 200 km forum ride in Cheshire on June 2nd and you would be welcome to join us. It is a very easy double metric century as long as you have the endurance for it. We don't ride quickly, we have 2 good cafe stops, and there are no significant hills on the route. (I had no problems doing the whole ride on a singlespeed bike with a 52/19 gear ratio.)

To get that double metric century in you would have to start from the centre of Manchester. Littgull and I will be doing that so you could meet us there and ride out with us. We use nickyboy's "escape route" from the city, the one used on his Llandudno ride on Saturday. I am no fan of urban riding, but this stretch isn't too bad as long as you keep your wits about you and avoid riding too close to the tramlines on a couple of roads (@Littgull is probably blushing as he reads this because I had to bellow at him last year to save him from the 'tramline of misery'!) ...

TBH though, the escape route is a necessary evil rather than something to be savoured. A nicer (and easier) option is to start from Dunham. We can pick you up there and you would still get an imperial century in round Cheshire without having to go into Manchester at all.

If you like the sound of 200 km with us, or 100 miles, or even 100 km if you join us for a shorter part of the ride in Cheshire (we'd sort something out!) - nip over to the ride thread HERE and add your name to the list.

PS Other metric century+ forum ride options coming up that I am organising and/or riding include Humber Bridge (June 9th, 100 miles - flat), Chester-Llandudno (June 30th, 100 miles - very hilly), Yorkshire Dales (July 7th, a 'long' metric century - very hilly) and Knaresborough (July 21st, 100 km - moderately hilly). See rides forum for details.

@ColinJ's annual 200km Cheshire ride is definitely one of my cycling highlights each year and I can highly recommend it. I've ridden it the last 3 (or is it 4) years and as well as the delightful and varied scenery I have enjoyed the company of old friends and new. Watch out for the tramlines though!

 

[GuyBoden]

@ColinJ's annual 200km Cheshire ride is definitely one of my cycling highlights each year and I can highly recommend it. I've ridden it the last 3 (or is it 4) years and as well as the delightful and varied scenery I have enjoyed the company of old friends and new. Watch out for the tramlines though!

The option of starting the ride at the "Big Tree" near Dunham Massey Park, makes it an excellent all day Cheshire country lane ride, especially for riders who live nearer to Dunham Massey Park.

"The Big Tree" is on School Lane, Dunham.

Edit: Rode another ride for May on Wednesday.

 

[ColinJ]

Even more country lanes this time because I have removed the unnecessary bit through Wilmslow and made up the distance with a couple more lanes later on!

 

[Bazzer]

Testing my legs ride today, in preparation for cycling to Blackpool in a couple of weeks time, where with luck, mileages tagged on to the beginning and end, will make it an imperial ton.
Cool to begin with, but by 8.30, warming up nicely.

Stopped by the Sutton/Weaver canal for cheese sandwiches.

And back home just as the breeze was picking.

Going to have to ring the LBS to sort out my gears. Doing my head in! Skipping and persistently dropping a couple of gears on the downshift in the last couple of weeks, so new chain and cassette fitted. (Old chain clearly stretched when compared to new one). Thought the problem had been solved, but it returned to haunt the ride and I got fed up with stopping and fiddling with the barrel adjuster. Wondering if the derailleur has been hit when at work.

 

[Sbudge]

June sorted nice and early. Lovely Imperial century ride with Mike R down into Oxfordshire...taking in the hills of Britwell, Grey's Lane, Colstrope, Dudley Lane, Streatley and Whitchurch along the way. Stopped at the Barn at Turville Heath along the way, must be pretty much the perfect cafe stop on a sunny day. Next century will be Nightrider on Saturday which is always fun.

 

[steverob]

I've finally managed it - twelve consecutive months of the 100km challenge! I know I still have to go until December in order to get my silver star, but after my crash curtailed last year's attempt, I restarted the challenge unofficially with July 2017's ride, so yesterday's completion got me a calendar year at the very least.

As for the ride itself, it was the Tour of Cambridgeshire Gran Fondo - 79 miles of closed roads (plus a few more added on for me to ride to and from the hotel), large chunks of it pan flat - there was a 30 mile stretch in the middle with less than 100ft of elevation gained.

Second time I've done this ride and enjoyed it a lot more than last time, possibly because I didn't have a stinking cold going in to it, plus the inevitable headwind in the Fens was nowhere near as strong as 2016's ride. Having said that, I did go into the ride with a lot less miles in my legs than I'd planned - due to being on holiday, various mechanicals, things at work and my bike being in Halfords for pretty much all of the last two weeks before the ride, the last time I'd done a long-ish (e.g. over 50 mile) ride on "my" bike was 7th April.

So yes, there was a little bit of worry about whether I'd have the stamina for such a long ride and so I took the first half very easy. But as I left a pit-stop just after halfway, I managed to spot a short train of other riders who were doing pretty much my sort of pace (very rare, normally people are either going a lot faster or slower than me) and I thought I'd try to catch on to their back wheels and see how long I could keep with them. 20 miles later (including two stints on the front myself) and we're still going strong, having attracted two riders more along the way (may have dropped one too) and I suddenly realise my average pace has gone through the roof, yet my legs still feel fresh. We all left the final pit-stop at different times so I didn't get the chance to draft again, but the final hour of the ride was surprisingly easy, although the warm temperatures did start to kick in at that point and I probably drained more water in those last 15 miles than in most of the rest of the ride. Ended up with a time of just over 5 hours, compared to a 5 1/4 hr last time for my supposedly better trained, but cold affected ride.

 

[Sbudge]

I've finally managed it - twelve consecutive months of the 100km challenge! I know I still have to go until December in order to get my silver star, but after my crash curtailed last year's attempt, I restarted the challenge unofficially with July 2017's ride, so yesterday's completion got me a calendar year at the very least.

As for the ride itself, it was the Tour of Cambridgeshire Gran Fondo - 79 miles of closed roads (plus a few more added on for me to ride to and from the hotel), large chunks of it pan flat - there was a 30 mile stretch in the middle with less than 100ft of elevation gained.

Second time I've done this ride and enjoyed it a lot more than last time, possibly because I didn't have a stinking cold going in to it, plus the inevitable headwind in the Fens was nowhere near as strong as 2016's ride. Having said that, I did go into the ride with a lot less miles in my legs than I'd planned - due to being on holiday, various mechanicals, things at work and my bike being in Halfords for pretty much all of the last two weeks before the ride, the last time I'd done a long-ish (e.g. over 50 mile) ride on "my" bike was 7th April.

So yes, there was a little bit of worry about whether I'd have the stamina for such a long ride and so I took the first half very easy. But as I left a pit-stop just after halfway, I managed to spot a short train of other riders who were doing pretty much my sort of pace (very rare, normally people are either going a lot faster or slower than me) and I thought I'd try to catch on to their back wheels and see how long I could keep with them. 20 miles later (including two stints on the front myself) and we're still going strong, having attracted two riders more along the way (may have dropped one too) and I suddenly realise my average pace has gone through the roof, yet my legs still feel fresh. We all left the final pit-stop at different times so I didn't get the chance to draft again, but the final hour of the ride was surprisingly easy, although the warm temperatures did start to kick in at that point and I probably drained more water in those last 15 miles than in most of the rest of the ride. Ended up with a time of just over 5 hours, compared to a 5 1/4 hr last time for my supposedly better trained, but cold affected ride.

Nicely done Steve, looks like a really great ride too!

 

[steverob]

@steverob I'd never heard of the Tour of Cambridgeshire, so I looked it up on the web. It's interesting that it's a closed-roads job but doesn't get any mention on here - unless I missed it. I may give it a whirl next year, unless it has stupidly fast cut off times. A quick scan of the website suggests that this might be the case, but I don't have time now to search further.

No, the cut-off times are really quite reasonable. There's a proper race up front that kicks off at 12 noon (you have to have a British Cycling race licence to be in that bit) but the "sportive" gates are released from around 12:30pm onwards based on your estimated speed (the 16-18mph group I'd put myself in started at 12:55) and I think we had until 8:30pm until the roads started to re-open, which meant an average of about 11.5mph would just get you round in time (with no stops).

Strava says I did a 17.1mph moving average, plus I stopped for just under 30 minutes combined at the three pit-stops, which ends up with the whole ride coming to a 15.7mph elapsed time average. I normally don't go anywhere near that fast (typical rides are 14-14.5mph average) but with a fairly flat course, no junctions to slow down for and if you're lucky like I was this year, some other riders to draft off of, you'll end up way faster than you expect. Plus as long as you're not up front with the racers, the roads are really quite empty compared with say, RideLondon - it's quite a relaxing ride all in all.

If you are going to sign up, apparently they are going to do a 100 mile version next year, but I think that's just going to be limited numbers and probably reserved for the full-on racers only - the sportive will still be 79 miles. I believe they are doing this as a test in case they get to hold the world championship in the next few years, which does require a longer course. At present, this ride is currently one of the about 20 qualifying rides for the world champs, but you've got to be in the top 25% to qualify - I was somewhere around the top 80% I think!

 

[GuyBoden]

I just thought I'd better get another 100km ride in today, as I have been slacking recently. So that's a 100 miles or more on Saturday's Cheshire ride and 100km or more today.

A slight detour today @ColinJ to check out a cafe at Calveley, that could be useful on your Cheshire Ride.

Edit: You get a pot of tea with the full Breakfast.