[Other Sport] Cycling geeks

[Stat Brother]

[tweet]351053805535756288[/tweet]

 

[Motogull]

Points are up.

Nice work Pantani, 21st on the stage overall

Bloody hell! Well done indeed.

Wrong type of footwear for the clips really for me this morning. Another schoolboy error neglecting to pre-open my nakd bars saw me drop one. After turning round to pick it up, I saw a white van heading for it, but thankfully missed it. That was my first stop and had a wobble thinking I'd only need to free one foot to pick it up. More time shaved off too. Some lights turned red when I didn't want them to and it was only after saying 'oh you can't' (close enough) that I saw the old dear walking her dog.

That flipping crash mucked up my team good and proper.

 

[1066familyman]

Good news on Tony Martin for those of us who have already invested fantasy heavy on a OPQS team time trial victory

 

[1066familyman]

That'll teach me to play my own fantasy game and not get panicked by other teams tatics. Was envious of Pantani's team set up and panicked into getting a potential breakaway rider in to cover the threat and managed to take a 10 point hit to take Cimolai out for Molard My betting luck went AWOL too with Samuel Dumoulin coming home in the autobus

I think Hivert was the Sojasun rider who had a mechanical near the finish too as he finished right at the back of the lead group. Oh well, onwards and upwards.

 

[Stat Brother]

The scores are up.
I took you to the cleaners 1066.

 

[1066familyman]

Ok, geek question time.

Can someone please explain the continuing fashion for fixies which seems to only be getting more and more intense? Looking at old road bikes on ebay nearly every other advert seems to say..."can easily be converted to a fixie" or "ideal fixie project" etc etc.

Having never ridden a fixie, or ever had a desire to do so as everywhere is hills where I live, I'm struggling to see the attraction. Can someone explain please? Cue teaboy I think?

 

[1066familyman]

The scores are up.
I took you to the cleaners 1066.

Yep, massive swing in your favour there to really work me over good and proper. I'm gutted and quite frankly I'm struggling to keep my head held high at the moment. Chapeau!

 

[Motogull]

Ok, geek question time.

Can someone please explain the continuing fashion for fixies which seems to only be getting more and more intense? Looking at old road bikes on ebay nearly every other advert seems to say..."can easily be converted to a fixie" or "ideal fixie project" etc etc.

Having never ridden a fixie, or ever had a desire to do so as everywhere is hills where I live, I'm struggling to see the attraction. Can someone explain please? Cue teaboy I think?

So you can ride backwards.

Or, it is the new way to get better fit.

 

[Pantani]

Ok, geek question time.

Can someone please explain the continuing fashion for fixies which seems to only be getting more and more intense? Looking at old road bikes on ebay nearly every other advert seems to say..."can easily be converted to a fixie" or "ideal fixie project" etc etc.

Having never ridden a fixie, or ever had a desire to do so as everywhere is hills where I live, I'm struggling to see the attraction. Can someone explain please? Cue teaboy I think?

I'm sure somewhere on this thread I launched a rant of quite some ferocity against the modern fashion for fixies. I'm not gonna try and find it though as this thread has got too long for searching back now. Track bikes I understand, riding fixed in Brighton? Just stupid.

 

[Stat Brother]

When I 'need' the acronym

Stat Brother's Bygone Age Of Cycling From Yesteryear Video Footage , or SBBAOCFYVF for short.

I know it's on page 63, of a 40 reply thread.


But then again I'm really weird with numbers.
People, names, places, events forget it, a series of numbers, not a problem (frackin freak)

 

[1066familyman]

Talking of numbers...looks like all the caps sold then? Hopefully everyone will get their money to you pretty sharpish too. Pretty good going to shift all 25 so quickly.

 

[Stat Brother]

Talking of numbers...looks like all the caps sold then? Hopefully everyone will get their money to you pretty sharpish too. Pretty good going to shift all 25 so quickly.

Yeah I was whoring the last one, all over the place, then comedy steve swooped in just from my signature.
I don't think he has any idea what he's buying.

Yes I'm (and my credit card) really pleased everyone has got on board.
It's 10 caps and 9 people outstanding, obviously a few of them were late to the party.

I'm hoping they'll be a little influx over the next few days, from the weekend.

They've been 'in production' for a couple of weeks, so I'll be sending final reminders out later this week, giving me time to sell any that might come back to the market.

I'm really pleased with the proofs, but would love to sell out before they start appearing on NSC.

 

[Stat Brother]

The 124 mile club are remarkably quiet, are you a little tiredy-poohs

Come on chaps, how did you get on?

 

[Spreadbetting Seagull]

The 124 mile club are remarkably quiet, are you a little tiredy-poohs

Come on chaps, how did you get on?

We all made it! Times taken from Strava:

Bold Seagull - 8.01
Pogue Mahone - 8.01
Spreadbetting Seagull - 8.22
Hamilton - 8.22

Fantastic route, great weather and plenty of Albion related chat for the 80 odd miles that we stuck together. Hamilton and I couldn't maintain the pace of BS & PM for the last 30 miles, they were very strong.

A personal highlight was riding past a park named 'Selhurst' which received a chorus of boos and jeering.

Looking forward to the next NSC challenge, hopefully we can entice a few of you to join us. We might have caps by then too!

 

[Stat Brother]

We all made it! Times taken from Strava:

Bold Seagull - 8.01
Pogue Mahone - 8.01
Spreadbetting Seagull - 8.22
Hamilton - 8.22

Fantastic route, great weather and plenty of Albion related chat for the 80 odd miles that we stuck together. Hamilton and I couldn't maintain the pace of BS & PM for the last 30 miles, they were very strong.

A personal highlight was riding past a park named 'Selhurst' which received a chorus of boos and jeering.

Looking forward to the next NSC challenge, hopefully we can entice a few of you to join us. We might have caps by then too!

Great stuff.

Did you go from the racecourse past Selhurst, left to right, so to speak.
I never could work out why I struggled along a 'flat' bit of road.
It's only when I got a Garmin, and realised it was a 5% false flat, changing gear made all the difference!!

 

[Bold Seagull]

The 124 mile club are remarkably quiet, are you a little tiredy-poohs

Come on chaps, how did you get on?

***Off Tour Topic***

Wiggle Cycling Series - The Long One (MAP)

@Bold Seagull @Pogue Mahone @Hamilton @Spreadbetting Seagull

For me, The Long One started the day before with lots of short ones....that is, lots of short ones to the karzi. A planned day of carb loading turned into a day of evacuations. Finally, I took the advice of whichever page on Google came up first and tried the B.A.R.T cure (Banana, Apple, Rice, Toast). This seemed to work, and a 05.00 getting the bike ready, I felt sure that I could hold it together.

So, me and Pogue travelled together to the illustrious surroundings of Fontwell race course, and duly met an apprehensive looking Hamilton and Spreadbetting at the start line. The tension was palpable as the 124 miles, 7400 ft of climbing hit home like a Matt Prior cover drive.

The start was shambolic. We turned right out of the Fontwell car park, and hanging onto the wheel of another group we sailed past the very first left turn we were supposed to take. Luckily, Pogue spotted the error, and 10 or so cyclists, all 500 yrds into 124 ride, turned around on a busy road. Numpties.

We were soon off though, and throughout the ride the scenery was simply stunning. If I was to heap praise on these organised sportives, it is that you are treated to some of the most dramatically picturesque quiet roads and lanes you could wish for. We sailed past village, brook, valley, wood, hillock, pillock...no, well there was the odd van driver.

We made the first feed stop 32 miles into the journey in good time, and proceeded to stuff our faces with flapjacks and jaffa cakes like rampant zombies taking mankind by surprise (or something). We got ourselves sorted, and were on our way again, with Hamilton setting a harsh pace.

In fact, on probably the hardest climb, Hamilton was out of the saddle early doors, Contador style, blissfully cruising this impending doomful looking hill. This likeness to Contador lasted for approx. 10 secs and was promptly replaced with some harsh breathing and repeated looks at his rear cogs as if in disbelief that he was already as low as he could go. Meanwhile, Pogue was happily getting up it in his granny gears like the proverbial tortoise - this proved to be the case later on.

We had a couple more big climbs before the 2nd feed station at the half way stage. This next feedstation, with the sun out, some nice grass to lie down on proved a temptation to just kick back and relax for a while, or 2 hours, or wait for the wiggle van to take us back! But no, Pogue wanted to get on, he roused the troops, 'come on, lets get going...' we reluctantly obliged, only for him to get a puncture before he got out of the feedstation car park. I suppose that this is the best place to get one really, especially with a track pump handy. Karma has a funny way with the world, and I wondered whether Pogue's early comment when passing a couple of puncture victims only 10 miles into the event 'how do you get a puncture this early', came back to bite.

So, Pogue had spare tubes, roused everyone again, we're already to depart.....oh hold on, Pogue's Strava app isn't working....just, oh wait.....it's not recording......

We did get going eventually.

At this point it was noted that I'm a busy cyclist. Arm warmers on, arm warmers off, fig roll, energy gel, flap jack, arm warmers again. I was told following me was like watching a magician from behind as their slight of hand bemuses the audience out front. They didn't appear to mind the slipstream I was providing though.

So as we approached 80 miles, Hamilton, with his early bursts, and pace setting when he hit the front blew up like Devon Loch seeing the finish line. Actually, it wasn't like Devon Loch, but being really loyal, compassionate, NSC comrades, we did let him disappear out of the back, looked at each other, and nodded that we were sure he'd be all right.

We hit Winchester Hill with some fatigue, and in my case a full bladder. I attacked our group halfway up, and they responded by simply going the same pace they were going. I felt good, I needed to get to the summit, get my KoM and empty the necessary's. Only I stopped short of the summit, relieved myself, got caught by the rest, only to realise the summit was around the corner with a bit more climbing to go. Schoolboy error.

Is this going on to long!!??

It was The Long One!

90 miles in we expected the final feed station in Hambledon. We went through Hambledon, climbed another epic hill to the home and origins of English cricket, and away with empty bottles, and hunger hitting hard. Through Clanfield, where is this bloody feed station!!

At this point it was just me and Pogue in a joint breakaway as Spreadbetting had now joined Hamilton in having legs like iron crowbars. I then desperately waved down a Wiggle patrol van.....water.....we must have water.......feedstation is 6 miles down the road mate, we moved it. Brilliant. Luckily the 6 miles was mainly downhill or flat.

So at 104 miles, we feed and watered, and with Hamilton and Spreadbetting joining up again we set off together for the final 20 miles. We were together for about 700 yrds until Hamilton and Spreadbetting dropped out the back again, and myself and Pogue decided what was required was a relentless pace to the finish.

We then got latched onto by a group of about 8 cyclists, who just allowed either myself or Pogue to take the front. Pogue got maddened by this, and finally one of them gave us a break. But only one. There was a guy in a pink cap, all chatty, but a cycling *******. A cling on, a dandy, a magpie. Taking everyone's wheel for miles, he then takes my wheel as I set off for a burst up our final climb past Goodwood. At the summit he then smiles at me all friendly, 10 miles of not being on the front, and accelerates off....Tit.

But that was only a minor irritation on a fantastic days cycling. We all finished it eventually with a great feeling of achievement, and a job well done. I even managed a sprint finish....sort of. Spreadbetting and Hamilton were not long after, and we had all achieved a very impressive days cycling.

A highly recommended route, good facilities, all in all a great sportive.

Can't wait for next year, especially with our NSC Caps!!

 

[Spreadbetting Seagull]

Great stuff.

Did you go from the racecourse past Selhurst, left to right, so to speak.
I never could work out why I struggled along a 'flat' bit of road.
It's only when I got a Garmin, and realised it was a 5% false flat, changing gear made all the difference!!

From the racecourse we headed north through Eartham and took a left onto Selhurst Park Road.

I used every single gear at my disposal during the day! My problem was preparation, hadn't touched my bike for 3 weeks and just got back from a boozy holiday. Hitting 'The Wall' at 90 miles was horrific, legs turned to jelly and the head suddenly became very light, the 3rd feed stop was a very welcome sight.

I'm sure the other guys will add some more detail to my rather brief summary although I've just remembered PM had a rather well timed puncture - in the car park of the 2nd feed stop!

 

[Bold Seagull]

Great stuff.

Did you go from the racecourse past Selhurst, left to right, so to speak.
I never could work out why I struggled along a 'flat' bit of road.
It's only when I got a Garmin, and realised it was a 5% false flat, changing gear made all the difference!!

We went past it in both directions, out and back. I thought I had a puncture going out as, like you say, it looked flat but I couldn't work out why I was going so slow and felt so much drag. certainly could tell the difference on the way back.

 

[Spreadbetting Seagull]

Cracking summary Bold!!

 

[Stat Brother]

Great read

I know the route well, it must have been a cracking ride.

It would be a very different ride in reverse.

One of my favourite sections you'd have missed , as you were going up.
Sweeping down from South Harting, through Compton, then down to Funtington, to loop home.
After a huge kick coming out of South H, it's like you're freewheeling through to the coast.