Turbo Club - Meet Ups / Events

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Del C

Veteran
Location
Horley
Yesterday was a mass ride of all the Cyclechat Turbo riders. Well that was the plan but at 9.30 a.m. @Del C rolled in to the car park of Ryka’s café to join me and Tommy to form the depleted group of riders.

We had our cups of tea and coffee and then set off. I had said I wanted to have a proper go at Box Hill to see what time I could set. Unfortunately, Box Hill started about 300 yards from Ryka’s so we were far from warmed up. I jumped to the front and set a pace but fairly quickly Tommy came past and set the pace the rest of the way up and I sat in his wheel.

It wasn’t very obvious where the segment ended so we kind of wound it down slowly. The segment hadn’t come up on my Garmin so it wasn’t until I got home that I could see the results. I’d managed a 7:09 which puts me second in my local club leaderboard. More importantly it seems I lead the Cyclechat Leaderboard as well. Tommy’s time doesn’t seem to show for some reason, so I’m not sure how that will pan out. In any event I’m sure one (or more) of you guys will go get the title soon 😊

The task completed, we settled into the ride which unsurprisingly was pretty lumpy as you can see from the profile below. The weather was kind to us staying dry all day. It wasn’t over warm but I took my arm warmers off after a couple of hours. I think Tommy had gone through hours of mental torment deciding between a long sleeve jersey or arm warmers. He chose the jersey in case you wondered.







View attachment 544526

We stopped for lunch at a pleasant cafe in Shere after 36 hilly miles, having done 5 significant climbs including Coldharbour Lane, Leith Hill and White Down. (That made 4 of Simon Warren's 100 Greatest Climbs if anyone follows these). Lunch was good and we had a good old chit chat.

I rarely stop when I ride on my own so the post-lunch aching legs was a bit of a shock - but it soon wore off as we ascended yet another hill. After around another 15 miles Del shouted "take the next right" and we turned into a rather agricultural looking lane. It ramped up and the surface slowly deteriorated. It then got worse, and steeper, and worse until I hit a point where I looked ahead and thought there is no way I can get up that without the tyres on my SystemSix (not really a MTB or CX bike) sliding out and I'd crash. I got off and turned around to see Tommy and Del doing the same. After a discussion we decided to carry on up rather than attempt the descent. It was a slow trudge to the top and Del was worried we were going to send him the bill for our new cleats :smile: The pic doesn't do it justice, it was very rough and very steep.

View attachment 544534

We reached the top and it was in completely the wrong place to get back to the planned route. I think it was at the top of Newlands Common.

View attachment 544535

We agreed to miss a portion of the route out and headed off laughing at our unplanned detour and of course headed off for another steep hill.

Fairly soon our foreshortened ride arrived back at Ryka's and we agreed we'd had a great ride and we didn't need to tack on any more miles. We had a last cuppa and reminisced over our various overseas mountain climb trips and all realised how much we missed them this year.

It was a good day all round, nice to meet Del and re-meet Tommy. Hopefully we'll do another one soon and get a few more of us together :okay:
Great write up Martin. And very kind to me bearing in mind my little Garmin 'error'. ^_^

Good to meet up with you and Tommy. Agree that we should try and set another of these rides up.
 
OP
OP
<Tommy>

<Tommy>

Illegitimi non carborundum
Location
Camden, London
Great write up Martin. And very kind to me bearing in mind my little Garmin 'error'. ^_^

Good to meet up with you and Tommy. Agree that we should try and set another of these rides up.

It would be bloody hard to blame you for anything Del, considering how grateful I am you took charge of the routing. And also as a consequence you put in loads of time up front. For what it’s worth martin was also convinced that was the right road. Right until the point the penny finally dropped 😄. Haha! What can you do... it didn’t spoil the day at all. In fact quite the opposite. I had a bit of a chuckle about it on my ride home. A pleasant distraction from the constant bloody headwind!

It was great meeting you mate. And spending some more time with Martin of course. Martin who chose to ride his aero bike, with 60mm rims and a fairly unsympathetic cassette to attack the Surrey hills. Because that’s the bike that makes him smile the most. How can you do anything but respect that type of logic!
 

Whorty

Gets free watts from the Atom ;)
Location
Wiltshire
Yesterday was a mass ride of all the Cyclechat Turbo riders. Well that was the plan but at 9.30 a.m. @Del C rolled in to the car park of Ryka’s café to join me and Tommy to form the depleted group of riders.

We had our cups of tea and coffee and then set off. I had said I wanted to have a proper go at Box Hill to see what time I could set. Unfortunately, Box Hill started about 300 yards from Ryka’s so we were far from warmed up. I jumped to the front and set a pace but fairly quickly Tommy came past and set the pace the rest of the way up and I sat in his wheel.

It wasn’t very obvious where the segment ended so we kind of wound it down slowly. The segment hadn’t come up on my Garmin so it wasn’t until I got home that I could see the results. I’d managed a 7:09 which puts me second in my local club leaderboard. More importantly it seems I lead the Cyclechat Leaderboard as well. Tommy’s time doesn’t seem to show for some reason, so I’m not sure how that will pan out. In any event I’m sure one (or more) of you guys will go get the title soon 😊

The task completed, we settled into the ride which unsurprisingly was pretty lumpy as you can see from the profile below. The weather was kind to us staying dry all day. It wasn’t over warm but I took my arm warmers off after a couple of hours. I think Tommy had gone through hours of mental torment deciding between a long sleeve jersey or arm warmers. He chose the jersey in case you wondered.







View attachment 544526

We stopped for lunch at a pleasant cafe in Shere after 36 hilly miles, having done 5 significant climbs including Coldharbour Lane, Leith Hill and White Down. (That made 4 of Simon Warren's 100 Greatest Climbs if anyone follows these). Lunch was good and we had a good old chit chat.

I rarely stop when I ride on my own so the post-lunch aching legs was a bit of a shock - but it soon wore off as we ascended yet another hill. After around another 15 miles Del shouted "take the next right" and we turned into a rather agricultural looking lane. It ramped up and the surface slowly deteriorated. It then got worse, and steeper, and worse until I hit a point where I looked ahead and thought there is no way I can get up that without the tyres on my SystemSix (not really a MTB or CX bike) sliding out and I'd crash. I got off and turned around to see Tommy and Del doing the same. After a discussion we decided to carry on up rather than attempt the descent. It was a slow trudge to the top and Del was worried we were going to send him the bill for our new cleats :smile: The pic doesn't do it justice, it was very rough and very steep.

View attachment 544534

We reached the top and it was in completely the wrong place to get back to the planned route. I think it was at the top of Newlands Common.

View attachment 544535

We agreed to miss a portion of the route out and headed off laughing at our unplanned detour and of course headed off for another steep hill.

Fairly soon our foreshortened ride arrived back at Ryka's and we agreed we'd had a great ride and we didn't need to tack on any more miles. We had a last cuppa and reminisced over our various overseas mountain climb trips and all realised how much we missed them this year.

It was a good day all round, nice to meet Del and re-meet Tommy. Hopefully we'll do another one soon and get a few more of us together :okay:
Just saw this write-up.... looks like you had a good day. :okay:
 

bridgy

Legendary Member
Location
Cheddar
Cheddar Gorge Meetup ride
As promised, here's the place to discuss a possible meetup in/around Cheddar to ride the Gorge etc.

I guess the first thing would be to sort out the date and accommodation for those who can't do it as a day trip (one may determine the other of course!)

In Cheddar itself, there are various campsites, including static caravan type accommodation if you don't want to bring your own tent. Moving up from that, there's a YHA, a few B&B's, a smallish hotel called "Gordon's", and some slightly posher rooms at the Bath Arms which is a nice pub with a few rooms above it (they're nice so it's probably the most expensive option).

Apart from that, I think you'd be looking at something a few minutes outside of Cheddar - for example there's a Premier Inn (about 5 miles away) and a Holiday Inn (about 8 miles away) on the way to Bristol Airport. There's obviously also accommodation up the road in Wells for example. If you can stay in opr near Cheddar though, it would make meeting up for a beer or something in the evening a lot easier.

I would be happy to organise a ride (or rides if we split into different groups) - I have ideas for some good routes for a nice day's ride. As well as Cheddar Gorge and the Mendip hills generally, the coast (at or near Weston Super Mare) is close by, and south of the Mendips are the Somerset Levels for some flatter roads. I have already planned a nice ride that takes in all of these, and Glastonbury, Wells etc.

I'll do my best to be around for whatever date is decided but June is probably a bit better for me than May - although I suspect availability of accommodation will be the main determining factor anyway!
 
OP
OP
<Tommy>

<Tommy>

Illegitimi non carborundum
Location
Camden, London
I’m up for it. June better than May for me too. Going on the premise we’re doing ventoux 1st of July (As unlikely as that might be...) maybe a couple of weeks before that?
 

Spartak

Powered by M&M's
Location
Bristolian
The Mendip Man....

584624


Great route if you like climbing, could be adapted for all..... :okay:
 

Joffey

Big Dosser
Location
Yorkshire
Weekends 19th or 26th June any good? Just seeing what weekend works for @Ketty and we can travel down together.

We'd be looking at travelling down on the Friday night, maybe stopping in Cheltenham on the way down then travelling to ride on Sat morning, staying local and then travelling back Sunday lunchtime.
 

bridgy

Legendary Member
Location
Cheddar
Weekends 19th or 26th June any good? Just seeing what weekend works for @Ketty and we can travel down together.

We'd be looking at travelling down on the Friday night, maybe stopping in Cheltenham on the way down then travelling to ride on Sat morning, staying local and then travelling back Sunday lunchtime.
Great news! Given a choice, 19th June definitely the better one for me at the moment
 
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