The old squit 200km: three seasons in one day

Saturday Feb 13th, 202km out of Colney, nr Norwich.

This ride was cancelled last year, the course being under 6 foot of snow. This year it was a little touch and go with fresh snow on Wednesday putting the ride in doubt though by Friday it had thawed enough for the ride to get the all clear. Truth be told, this ride had mentally beaten me long before my legs got tired - after just 15km the early morning sleet turned once again into proper snow, via a nice hailstorm. We had a chat amongst us about which was preferable - riding without glasses and getting your corneas treated to hailstone dermabrasion every nano second or riding with glasses and getting a layer of sleet on the outside and condensation on the inside, making them impossible to see through. After much debate we decided that neither was preferable.

The course, duly coated with snow on top of hail on top of sleet on top of ice then became "a bit tricky", slowing everything down to a crawl. Somewhere in the middle of slithering through the white stuff came my first "sod this" moment and I almost turned for home. We then turned off the rural backlane onto a slightly more used road which had been gritted so on I ploughed to the first stop at 50km for a lovely bacon and egg sarnie.

The next 50km took a different route back to the Colney HQ, by now the slush had melted and the Norfolk country lanes had turned from white to brown - very very brown, in parts the lanes were more akin to fields / ditches than roads. If you want to know just how mucky the ride became, this should give you a good idea:

90km into the ride and just 10km from the HQ (and half-way point) the hail returns once again bigtime, and all of us in our little group of 6 say in unison "sod this". Back to the HQ at 100km I was close to just jumping in the car & going home (a number of people did) but I was neither all that cold nor all that wet (thanks mainly to some fab winter cycling kit) and it felt churlish coming all this way to just give up half way round.

Out again for the next 50km leg and winter turns to spring, with an hour or so of weak sunshine warming up the spirits. Alas then spring turned to autumn with a nasty stretch into a stiff arctic headwind slowing progress once again. By this point I was feeling a little physically unwell (remnants of a cold) and with a sagging heart was just about to call it a day and turn for home when an old cycling buddy caught me up (he's a lovely guy and super fit but he's twice my age so I know I'm struggling a bit whenever he catches me...) and a little chat took my mind off feeling unwell and perked me up again.

In and straight out of the 150km stop as it's starting to get dark now AND ONCE AGAIN SOME IDIOT LEFT HIS MAPLIGHT AT HOME SO HE CAN'T READ THE DARN ROUTESHEET ONCE IT GETS DARK... and I press on for home. Alas probability finally caught up with me 30km from home and after riding for 8 hours through sludge, grit, hedge trimmings & rocks the tiniest little flint managed to sneak in and puncture my rear tyre. Only now do you realise just how cold it is, standing around fiddling with wet tyres, fingers numb in just a few minutes. I didn't help myself by freezing my CO2 canister (they are fab, pump a tyre up in 2 seconds) onto my fingers - as the gas rushes out the canister goes instantly ice cold, sticking to anything wet.... Fool.

So by now it's properly dark, I'm cold from having fixed my puncture, I'm covered in shite from head to toe, I'm not feeling too well and I can't read the directions any more - but apart from that all is dandy. Once again I am picked up by another rider and chatting along as we ride perks us both up for the last hour or so back to the HQ.

Ride stats: 203km, ride time 8hr 45 mins (total time 10 hrs), average 23.1km / hr.

Feb '10 - Winter 1066

Feb 7th, Hailsham - The Winter 1066. 100km, 1980m of climbing

One of the many rides organised by Dave Hudson out of Hailsham. His rides are always a little more expensive than most (OK, I'm talking £6 rather than the usual £3) but in return you get to stuff yourself silly at every stop with as much stodge and sugary stuff you can manage. He even brings along seats, toasters etc to the rest stops. All you do is sit on one of his seats, open your mouth and he just shovels in calories. Most people end the ride having put weight on...

Very much a ride of three thirds, the first third being the bit I get on least well with, a real bumpy continual up and down though Sussex lanes. None of it extreme, just up hill, round bend, down hill, round bend, up hill, round bend... for 35km to the first of the stodge stops. The next 40km were more my style of hills, long grindy steady climbs, each of them a few km long. This took us down to Hastings (the clue was in the title...). I've always wondered if a cyclist will (with sufficient speed etc) set off a speed camera and after a long grind to a ridge above Hastings we them had a 75km / hr blast down the other ride to the sea front, complete with the speed camera flashing away to it's hearts content. In hindsight I wish I had clocked it beforehand as I could have given it a "special wave" but I wasn't about to turn around and go back up the hill (not yet, anyway...).

A lovely cruise along the seafront at Hastings for about 5km, winter sun was out, sky was blue, then sharp right turn, up a 1 in 5 that leveled off to a 5km climb back up (& a bit further along) the ridge we'd come down and back to Dave for another helping of stodge.

The last 30km were dead flat, just a few m above sea level, across (not literally) the marshes along the sea front back to Hastings.

All in all a lovely ride, the sun came out and it's nice to feel fit again after the winter break.

Ride stats: 107km, climb 1,980m, ride time 4hr 50, average a bumpy 22km / hr.

200km out of Norwich this coming Saturday. If the newly arrived wintry blast doesn't shift that ride will be "a bit cold".

Jan '10, finally the snow goes away.

So finally onto my bike after an interminably long winter.

Norfolk Nips: 100km, Jan 16th.

This should have been a nice trip around the Norfolk flatlands but turned into a really toughie - barely above freezing, very windy - the first 60km was into a horrible headwind, the flatlands of Norfolk offering no protection from the artic blast and pretty wet - both in terms of rain / sleet though more so in terms of the melt water flooding the roads for large sections of the ride - one part was thigh deep, complete with a stranded van in the middle just for effect. Alas my waterproof shoe liners were no match for 50cm of water and the last 70km of the ride was ridden with rather waterlogged shoes - not nice...

The leg home was a 40km blast with a stiff tailwind but alas by now the legs were shot after all the work into the wind. The stats for the ride tell their own story - distance - 100km, total climb - about nil, ride time just shy of 5 hours for an average of 20km / hr, I get over the Pyrenees with a better average than that.

Willy Warmer: 200km, Jan 23nd

I always find it quite serene setting off on a ride in the morning darkness, riding through all the day and ending in the evening darkness, a peace seems to settle on the country after dark and it's just you and your bike riding in peace and quiet along unlit country roads. This was a nice ride out of Chalfont, over the Chilterns, the first 140km or so being "a bit bumpy", the last 60km being a cruise back home. My lack of "race fitness" though was telling, too much Xmas pud and too many weeks out of the saddle. One of the other riders who I know cruised up to me after 50km and said "hello Chris, you look like you are making heavy work of that" and he was spot on. I often go through bad patches on a ride but my bad patch here lasted from 40km through to around the 160km mark, only when it got dark did I perk up and settle into my cruising rhythm. The sun came out. Twice. For 2 minutes each time. I smiled both times but it didn't last, alas.

Total ride 207km, climb 2,000m, ride time 9 hours for an early season bumpy ride average of 22.8km / hr.

Total stats for month:
Road bike: 450km
Mountain bike: circa 100km
Spin: 8 sessions.

It's Snow fun for a cyclist

In the back of my mind I would like to give PBP a go in 2011. More on PBP itself nearer the time but it's basically a 1,200km non stop bike ride to be completed in 90 hours. Broadly speaking it's cycle for 24 hours, sleep for 2, cycle 24 hours, sleep 2, cycle 24 hours, sleep 2, cycle for 12 hours {finish}, sleep for 48 hours.

So far well, the training is not going to plan. First ride of the season was a 200km ride planned for this weekend out of Oxford, alas cancelled due to the weather. Lot's of long distance cyclists in a similar position are taking out their frustration on the various chat-rooms where most conversations start with ARRGGHHHHHH!. All very frustrating.