alex_cycles
Veteran
- Location
- Oxfordshire
The only thing cool about the Alpe is the temperature at the top
Rolling down from the top is quite nice though
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Rolling down from the top is quite nice though
Rolling down from the top is quite nice though
I hate descending (in real life). Tenerife in Feb, whilst hard the 42km climb up Teide was fun. But the thought of descending for over an hour scared the be-jeezuz out of me. Thankfully half way down the rains came in and the group had to abandon
alex_cycles
Veteran
- Location
- Oxfordshire
I hate descending (in real life). Tenerife in Feb, whilst hard the 42km climb up Teide was fun. But the thought of descending for over an hour scared the be-jeezuz out of me. Thankfully half way down the rains came in and the group had to abandon
I did a trip to Wales in June. After climbing a mountain (I think it was Rhigos) we had quite a long descent. We could hear a couple of motorbikes behind. There had been motorbikes tearing up and down that mountain so we expected them to come past.
We got aero and were watching the road carefully for twists and turns, but it was fairly straight. But the motorbikes couldn't catch us. It was an utterly awesome experience. At the bottom they caught and passed us and then we saw the L-plates on their bikes.
We were grinning our heads off.Obviously the lower power of the beginner bikes wasn't enough to catch a couple of bicycles. Made us feel good, anyway.
BurningLegs
Guru
I've seen that in pro-racing too @alex_cycles - the motorbikes can struggle to keep up on the windy descents!
Thanks Al - there were 3 riders off the front which didn't help with the odds of scoring FAL points if they were just allowed to stay out there so I thought there wasn't much to lose by going early and seeing if I could catch them on the drag up to the sprint. I got 2 out of the 3 but it was a shame the German guy from our rival team Rheinhessen pipped me on the line - he did that to me at the finish as well
I hate descending (in real life). Tenerife in Feb, whilst hard the 42km climb up Teide was fun. But the thought of descending for over an hour scared the be-jeezuz out of me. Thankfully half way down the rains came in and the group had to abandon
Pussies
The one time it rained ontop of Teide for me, everyone got in the van
Except me, didn't fancy a steaming drive back to the hotel. I came down the mountain alone, it was dry after Vilaflor, beat the van to the hotel
mjd1988
Guru
Well done. That is a truly horrible sprint. Such a long long effort, and with people putting out nearly 11 w/kg for 30 seconds hard for anyone. Did we do it the other direction last time? Still horrible but at least the sprint section is flat
It's downhill the other way. You need to be very close to the front coming off the roundabout to launch. It's over in a flash
alex_cycles
Veteran
- Location
- Oxfordshire
Have now...
View: https://youtu.be/8UXRLM5tB3k
It seems to be designed to goad you into going faster. (It works).
It was indeed ... I managed to just about hang on out the pens, up the climb to the Arc, but was way at the back so dropped before the sprint really started. I think I managed to latch on to the back of the pack on the drop down to the start/finish. Held on to the back until the road started to go up again towards the Arc, then shelled out the back
Never to see the pack or a contest a sprint the whole race.Thankfully I latched on to Ketty and Rich (might have been Rich's first race for us) who dragged me around for 5 laps.
Tuesday it was Alex and some random other guy who dragged me around
alex_cycles
Veteran
- Location
- Oxfordshire
No we did exactly the same course in the same direction - and same number of laps - in the ZRL back in May 2021 but I think we were on different teams then.
I don't remember it that clearly either - we both must have tried to forget that traumatic experience!
alex_cycles
Veteran
- Location
- Oxfordshire
Tuesday it was Alex and some random other guy who dragged me around
If it wasn't for the fact that he was in another team - and therefore an enemy - you'd think we treated him pretty badly
Once you guys caught me up we went through the tunnel at the end of lap 4 and you were in front, so I burritoed him on the up-slope as it wouldn't hurt you in front.
Then 200m before the sprint I led you out and we put 5s into him. Then when I caught you back up I decided to play breakaway and stay off. He caught you back up and you stayed on his wheel all the way to the end then beat him to the line. What a pair of prize bastards
Well done us! 
And all the while, Andy was in the group 12s behind deliberately doing no work so they wouldn't catch as easily.
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