Freinds Re-united

This week’s stats look pretty good: 155 miles, 4100 metres of ascent.

This was primarily aided by my participation in the Action Medical Research Peak 100 Sportive yesterday. Not only was this ride perfectly timed for a final long haul ride pre-Marmotte, but was also a chance to catch up with some of the chaps from Yorkshire after a couple of months daan saafff.

Originally planned as a 40^th birthday celebration, we had a slight change of personnel with the birthday boy (James) and the youngest member of the original gang of 5 (Ash) claiming to have not done enough training to do the event (tut tut tut). That statement I would put down as one of the biggest understatements of the year.... doing 10 miles with your 6 year old son as your only two wheeled outing since Christmas DOES NOT COUNT as “training”!!!

Anyway, the youngsters were replaced by men of more experience in life (and in the saddle) and it was a pleasure for Al, Ian and I to hook up with Dave and Brian again. Dave and Brian argued over which one was going to be more convincing Ash impersonator (20 years their junior) but overall it gave Dave a chance to scare us a little more about how hard the Marmotte will be and share a few more of his jokes.

Dave takes time to share a joke

The five of us set off under grey skies and a light breeze, but as the day went on (and on and on) the weather brightened. The route planners provided a ride that had plenty of climbing (900 metres more than advertised!), quiet roads and some great scenery across the entire breadth of the Peak District... and a fantastic lunch stop (which didn’t do much to give us record breaking times). What they didn’t give us was any flat roads... however from a positive point of view, this provided great preparation for the weekend after next (eek).



Ian - never misses the chance for a spot of marketing ... you see Bernie, bike time IS corporate time



Al - something borrowed AND blue? Good job Paul doesn't read my blog!



Our gang of five contracted and expanded throughout the day. After 5 miles, Ian decided that it may be more prudent to form a splinter group given his lack of miles in comparison to the rest of us. Al gallantly joined him under the pretence of keeping him company. At the first feed station our numbers swelled once again and 3 became 5 as two more riders joined us. We got up to a bunch of about 9 at one point as a number of riders (us included) overshot a turning and then spent about 15 minutes wondering how to rejoin the group. After much deliberation we took to the A6 (which was a little busy) until we saw a group of riders crossing ahead and rejoined the official course.



This led us up some really lovely climbs and quick-but-not-too-scary descents (maximum speed recorded 45mph before applying brakes as self preservation kicked in). In fact, the entire route seemed to try and fit in every climb possible in the entire National Park and the total ascent was over 3500m. Most climbs were reasonable in incline and a good length – as good a preparation as one could ask for given the challenge that lays ahead. In fact, it was so well planned that after 98 miles, we hit Froggat – 5 miles long, average grading 4% .... a perfect practice for Alpe d’Huez if a lot less steep and a lot shorter.

At this point we were back to our trio following a brief teaming up with another 3 riders who kept us company for 10 or 15 miles. However, Brian had clearly received insider information about the large crowd awaiting us at the top of the Froggat climb .... Al, Ian and Miranda (Al and Ian’s miraculous leap frog is explained a little later).

For the previous 95 miles he had fooled Dave and I into thinking his legs were tiring as he fell a couple of hundred yards behind us on most climbs ... but with hindsight I guess he was just trying to avoid Dave’s jokes, or just didn’t want to be seen with us.



Photographic evidence that Brian wasn't always in front



As we neared the summit, Brian found a second wind a broke away from the back of the goup(ette). Dave kicked down and followed him but I was happy to keep my pace steady and let a gap form.... or I was at least until we rounded the bend and saw our supporters shouting encouragement. Miranda was armed with a cam-corder and can quite clearly be heard saying “where’s Dave?”. My claims of being the victim of foul play and glory seeking fell on deaf ears. However, we rejoined shortly after filming had ceased to cross the line together under blue skies. We were greeted by a solitary, half-hearted half-clap from the chap who was collecting our chips.... I expect more a week on Saturday!

So how did we do?

Well, Ian and Al came 33^rd out of 166 alleged 100 milers... however, they did a 35 mile short cut by opting for the 100km route.... judging by some of the times posted on AMR’s website it looks like a few others did too.



While I may not be fast I have decided I am at least consistent with a ride time of 8hs 8 minutes ... strangely EXACTLY the same as the ride in the Dales a few weeks before. Our total time was 9hrs 20 minutes (aided by a rather large lunch and a whole load of faffing when we got lost). This put the three of us joint 99^th.... probably not quite good enough for a silver medal time but a thoroughly enjoyable day out with good company and kind weather.

So, how has it affected my mood and my confidence in achieving the goal of completing La Marmotte?

I think I’d now move Maurice back up to “feeling good”. I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday’s ride and believe I am far more suited to longer, gentler inclines rather big nasty steep ones.... although I’m under no illusion that the ascents next week will be particularly gentle, but it’s all relative. While I might not have been fast I felt pretty good for most of the route.



I am now sure that if I get to the bottom of Alpe d’Huez I will have the resolve to finish it, even if I have to pedal until dusk. My new worry is getting to the bottom of Alpe D’Huez, it ain’t the North of England: there’s the heat... and the altitude.... and the scary descents ... and the ridiculously long climbs.... but I’m now as ready as I’ll ever be. I spent a large chunk of today preparing my bike so that at least I’ll look the part when I’m not moving (which could be rather a lot of the time!!)

......keep my chip, pedal all the way; keep my chip, pedal all the way; keep my chip, pedal all the way; keep my chip, pedal all the way; keep my chip, pedal all the way; keep my chip, pedal all the way; keep my chip, pedal all the way;



(Left to right) Pheng, Me & James enjoying one of the many quiet roads







16 days to go

Just 88 miles and 1000 metres of climbing this week, but the Peak 100 Sportive is this weekend so will be the final checkpoint for Maurice to assess state of body and mind......

The mantra for my few remaining training sessions: keep my chip, peddle every all the way;keep my chip, peddle every all the way;keep my chip, peddle every all the way;keep my chip, peddle every all the way;keep my chip, peddle every all the way;keep my chip, peddle every all the way;keep my chip, peddle every all the way.....

Countdown is progressing....

Exactly four weeks from now it will all be over, whatever happens. The countdown has moved from weeks to days and the event now feels incredibly close...... 27 days and counting.

The weather over the last few weeks has aided my race preparation in a couple of ways.

The rather windy end to the month of May meant that most training rides consisted of a healthy does of strong headwinds. I have managed to persuade myself that this is not a bad substitute for ridiculous mountain passes given Wiltshire’s lack of 2,000m peaks. A 50 mile ride into strong south westerly head winds nearly all the way to my parents house a couple of weeks back was probably the most significant training session of this period. ... I also managed to find 1000m of climbing on this route, which while not really alpinesque, when combined with the wind made me feel like I was trying despite the awful weather... the rain made it hard to see anything and my phone also drowned so it was not quite the ride I had originally envisaged in late May. My just rewards after a 3 hour + battle against the elements was a large slice of home-made chicken pie and a warm bath.

The return of warm sunny weather last week helped me develop a more appropriate cyclists tan to help me at least look the part in amongst the French & Italian riders who will be making up the majority of the field four weeks from now. While my tan may be more ‘farmers’ than Mediterranean,  my arms and head are really quite brown. My legs, however, still remain firmly planted in the dulux range of whites. A week of exposure may have moved them on from pure brilliant white, to white with a hint of pink but they are still quite offensive (and perhaps even downright dangerous) to other road users. Hopefully we will continue to see fine weather in the UK over the next few weeks so I can at least work on the colour if not the performance of my legs.

As the “one month to go” point arrived, I decided to celebrate it with a decent length ride dropping on and off the ridge line of the Cotswolds encompassing three climbs that I’ve been promising to do since my arrival:-

1.     From Wickwar back onto the ridge via Wotton-Under-Edge (5km, 175m ascent, 3.5% ave, steepest point 14%)

2.     Crawley Hill (appropriately named) out of Uley back onto the ridge (2.7km, 155m ascent, 5.7% ave, steepest point 15%)

3.     “The W” from Nailsworth onto Minchenhampton Common (2.3km, 153m ascent, 6.7% ave, steepest point 16%)

Following this ride, Maurice is struggling to gauge my current level of preparedness. While I have made significant improvements over the last six months – completing the 60 miles and 1250m of climbing in this ride at an average pace of 16mph, I wonder whether this is really going to be good enough in a few week’s time. The weather was probably 10 degrees cooler than France in July will be and the total ascent achieved was just a smidgeon more than the final climb up Alpe d’Huez....

This is enough to focus on training over the next few weeks with the Peak 100 on 19^th June – my final check on long-haul sportives. Success here will be a silver medal time.....

The stats for the last 4 weeks look OK, if not perfect.....

                                     Target                     Actual

Ave  weekly mileage      125                       123

Ave wkly ride time          8 hrs                 7 ¾  hrs

Ave weekly ascent          2,500m              2,360m

..... hopefully this, plus the next two weeks will prove enough.......