Keep your head - Wear a helmet!

"But it'll mess my hair!"

I know I have posted about this before, although the last time was a bit more morbid and included a number of names of people who had recently been killed whilst out cycling - from what I remember it was a significantly large number of people in a very short space of time that had meant that the mainstream papers were running stories about it as well!

With the advances in technology and style, it still amazes me the number of people who still don't wear a helmet whilst out cycling, surely coming home from a ride has to be the most important part of a ride even behind having fun?! You never quite know what is going to happen when you set off and so wearing a helmet goes a long way to making sure you arrive back safely.

Source : Mirror.co.uk

The number of excuses that people use when you ask them why they don't wear a helmet really is baffling at times! It can range from them being uncomfortable to not being cool, the ever popular "it'll mess my hair up" or the fact that "it's only a training ride/commute". With the sport becoming more and more popular by the year it's down to those already in the sport to ensure that newcomers, especially youngsters, keep themselves safe whilst out on the ride before they make themselves look the coolest!

I think the old concept that pro riders don't wear helmets when they are not racing is beginning to be quashed as most of the material you can see online which involves media of the pros training you will be able to see them with helmets on, I even remember that a number of the riders I've seen signing on at the Tour of Britain or Tour de Swiss have their helmets on when riding between the buses and podium which I'd hope will encourage others to wear a helmet even if it is for a short ride out to the shops or into the office.

Source : Scotbycycles

Another thing that's helping to make sure that more people wear a helmet when out on the road is that club rides are telling riders that they will not be welcome on the club rides if they aren't wearing a helmet - so even if you turn up on the flashiest bike with the newest kit, if you don't have a helmet with you you're going to look pretty silly when you are asked to leave the ride before it's even begun! It's also very common for sportives or other events to require you to be wearing a helmet when taking part, which is a great idea especially with the wide variety of skill levels who are all out on the road at the same time often taking on challenging routes where they are less likely to be familiar with the roads (so never quite know what's going to be around the next corner!)

I feel the solutions that are being developed by the cycling industry are also giving people less opportunity to give excuses - what with the new helmet styles that are coming out all the time it's surely more cool to have a helmet like the pros (which are developed to keep a rider going far faster than the majority of us do when we're out on the road), and also the air helmets that are also available - providing a way to make sure that hairstyles are not ruined during the ride.

Source : Pinterest (Bzemer)

Give me my trusty Specialized helmet any day of the week, I don't think that there is a ride I've been on since I took the sport up again nearly five years ago (whether it be the current helmet or the old one), and even along the cycle path by the canal last weekend when pottering along with the dogs it was securely on because you can never be certain what's going to happen whilst you're out on a ride...

One Life - Liv 4 It, Love It

2017 - The Plans!

Wow, didn't 2016 go quick?!

It really doesn't seem like that long ago that I was sitting down to do my first piece of 2016, and here I am doing the first one of 2017... Whilst a lot went on (and that's probably why it went by so quickly) I'm certain if I looked back onto the things that I wanted to do sporting-wise and to do with this blog I certainly wouldn't have met half the targets I might have set myself!

The idea for 2017 is to set myself a few targets and see how I get on against them - you could call them New Year's resolutions, but that just gives them a feel that they are only for the beginning of the year and so halfway through they'll be forgotten! If I call them 2017 targets then at least I've got something to aim for by the end of the year rather than just the start!

My three areas that I want to build these around are health, events, and my blogging/vlogging. They've all got challenges, but I can see the events and blogging sections being the harder to keep up, so any support from you guys is really appreciated!

Health

This might be one that some people find contentious, I'm lucky in the fact that I still have a pretty high metabolism and can therefore eat quite a lot and still remain roughly the same weight, however as I'm sure mum has said for a number of years "it'll catch up with you at some point!". To that end I'm trying to make sure that I eat more healthily during 2017, meaning less takeaways and booze, and more home cooking and forward planning about meals!

To help with this section a late Christmas present Ali and I bought each other were Fitbits, and so I'm tracking how I'm getting on through the app. I've set a step goal each day of at least 6,000 steps which is below the recommended number when you first open the app but is a more realistic goal given that my job consists of sitting at a desk for a decent amount of the day! So far this year I've actually managed to meet the target each day, so fingers crossed this will continue!

I am also aiming to exercise at least three times a week for a minimum of 30 minutes each time - whether this be running, cycling or going to the gym. Looking at the app for the Fitbit it counts a brisk lunchtime walk as one of these exercises but I'm hoping to get in three "proper" sessions as well each week.

The final (and possibly likely to be the most debated in the household) health target I'm aiming for is to lose the little bit of additional weight I've gained over the past couple of years. As I said at the beginning of this piece, I'm lucky in the fact that I can often eat whatever I want and still maintain a relatively constant weight, however when I compare myself to how I was at peak fitness when I started uni and was playing badminton constantly last year's lack of training and post wedding relaxing has definitely won! I'm hoping to get myself down to around 84kg (I'm somewhere about 86kg at the moment) but at the same time have muscle instead of wedding excess!

Events

I'm really looking forward to doing a few events this year, as it makes the pain of exercise and training for bearable, and gives something to work towards. As it stands I'm only entered into one event for the year - a 5k night run in Bristol at the end of February, but I'm hoping to complete at least five running events and one triathlon by the end of December and maybe even a cycling sportive or two! These might not seem like a lot of events to challenge myself to enter nad complete in a year, but given that last year I only took part in (and completed) one event this is quite a step up!

As for what sorts of running events I'm going to take part in we'll have to wait and see - things like Tough Mudder don't really take my fancy, but the Endurance Life Coast Trail Series looked quite good fun when Ali took part in a number of their events last winter so I might be eying up a few of them towards the back end of the year. The main aim for any of the events is to have a fun and to finish - if I end up getting a good finish time out of it then that's a bonus!!

Blogging

Where would I be in setting targets for 2017 on a blog if I didn't set some targets for that as well?!

One thing that I really want to make sure that I do is doing a monthly 'progress' piece on here to see how I'm getting on against the targets that I've set myself for the year, what this should do is make sure that I'm keeping focused on what I plan to achieve over the course of the year because these posts could be super boring if ever month was "I did nothing"!!

I'd like to upload more content onto the Keep em Spinning YouTube channel through the year - whether it be a monthly vlog to accompany these blog update posts, reviews/videos of events that I've taken part in, or snippets of races that I've been to see. Make sure that you keep your eyes on there for any new content that's uploaded!

All the blog posts and videos will be shared via the Facebook page, so it'd be really great to get a few more 'likes' on there before the end of December! I'm going to set myself a challenging target of 500 likes by the end of the year, and will be running a few competitions to try and help me on my way - so watch out for those…..

If you'd like to take part in posting on here, by sharing your experiences about your sporting time or a specific event that you've taken part in, then either drop a comment at the bottom of the post or send a message on the Facebook page - it would be great to have a few more people to share their stories!

'til next time

One Life - Liv 4 It, Love It

Rob 

Duston Triathlon 2016

After Ali and Emma have successfully got through the Paris marathon, it's now my turn to take part in an event that I've been (supposed to be) training for over the winter - the Duston Sprint Triathlon!

I was hoping that Ali was going to take part in the event as well, along with her brother James, but since she buggered (that's the technical wording!) her hip a couple of weeks before the marathon, and then battled around the roads of Paris it's just going to be me v James in the family battle!!

James is taking part in the event with one of his fellow directors of the Mr Smith Group, Paul Smith, and they are hoping to raise as much money as possible for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Head over to their JustGiving page (via the link below) to help them reach their target!

As with the Paris marathon there will be plenty of other posts, pictures and updates leading up to the event (even if it is only next weekend!) and during the event (Ali's in charge of the camera this time!!)

James and Paul do a Triathlon JustGiving page

One Life - Live It, Love It

2016 - What I want to do...

It's a new year (in case you hadn't seen from the training posts I've been putting up!), so it's now time that everyone is setting targets for the coming twelve months.

Interval Training

Threshold Training

Recovery Training

Endurance Training

Hill Training

I'm no different, but it's always difficult to set things that I'm going to have a chance of achieving, but still difficult enough to give me a proper challenge...

As a base mark I'm setting three distance goals to complete for the end of 2016:

Cycle 2,000km

Run 1,000km

Swim 50km

Now for a lot of people this might not really sound like a proper challenge, but if you have a look at my Strava activities over the past couple of years then you'll see that the amount of exercise I've been doing has been heading in the wrong direction as work and home life seem to get in the way!

Creative Commons

The swimming aspect of this will be even more of a challenge as I have done very very little of this since I even left junior school, and when I say very little in mean only two proper swimming sessions (of around 400m) and a couple of splashing sessions when on holiday in the past six years!!!

So for those who were paying attention will have probably worked out that I need to roughly swim 1 km, run 20 km and cycle 40 km a week to hit these targets - good luck to me with this as well!!

I have a few events that I'm already signed up to during the year that'll help with the distance and motivation during the year so I'll be sure to mention them as they are coming up.

Another thing that'll really help with the motivation is if you guys can join in with me on this - in order to compete the weekly distance on the bike I'm going to have to swap the drive one day a week for a cycle, and whilst there are the obvious things like going for my target and getting fit again there is also the benefits of less environmental impact. I'm tracking this on my DoNation campaign and would really like it if others could pledge alongside - each one only lasts a couple of months, but do it for a few months in a row then you could make it a habit of a lifetime!

Click here to view the campaign page, and comment below or on the social media pages to let me know that you've joined in!

One Life - Live It, Love It

Riding the seasons - Winter

Winter is the hardest time of the year to motivate yourself to get out on your bike. Cold and dark mornings and evenings make it much more attractive to stay in bed for that extra hour before work or to curl up on the sofa to watch TV or films at weekends.

This is all before the party season that's sure to take a bit of a toll on waistline, liver and general fitness. Ice and muck - both of which make riding surfaces treacherous, are more ready-made excuses for staying in.

What you do in the winter can be crucial - riding regularly will help you consolidate the progress you have made in the warmer months and will give you a head start when the season gets underway again in the spring.

Events

20/02/2016 - Wiggle Super Series No Excuses Sportive
28/02/2016 - Kentish Killer
28/02/2016 - The Rawlinson Bracket
Evans Cycles RideIT Sportives - Various locations and dates (see here)

Clothing

A jacket is the single most important piece of clothing in your winter cycling wardrobe. It should be windproof and waterproof, but still needs to be breathable - the trick is to wear breathable layers underneath too. It's always good to start your ride feeling a little bit cold, as you will soon heat up once you've got going - if you start the ride all warm and cosy then you're almost certain to overheat during the ride.

A pair of gloves comes in close second to a jacket in terms of importance in winter. Your hands are virtually stationary when you ride so can end up getting extremely cold - especially your fingers. Again, the best gloves for the job will be windproof and waterproof.

Bikes

People take particular care protecting their body from the winter weather, and should have the same philosophy for their bikes. Your first job for the winter (so therefore should already be done) should be to book your bike in for a service before the weather gets too bad - with the balmy mild weather we have been having you'll still be ok!

Switching to wider tyres and reducing the pressure by 10-20psi will give you that extra little bit of traction of mucky, wet and icy roads. Extra grime on the roads means you should clean your bike more often and more carefully than in other seasons to ensure that this doesn't affect the performance of the bike. Extra attention should be paid to your chain which should be cleaned at least once a week (assuming you're out at least once a week!!)

After cleaning, give the bike frame a squirt of hydrophobic spray and the chain some water disperser before lubing it up. Finally, don't scrimp on a good set of lights - they could save your life.

One Life - Live It, Love It

Merry Christmas Everyone!

A seasons greeting to everyone!

I hope you all have a wonderful festive period, get to relax and spend time with those you love, and don't worry too much about training and keeping off the indulgent food and drink (that's what the New Year is about!)

If you want to spend the time planning what not to each, and how to kick start your training then check out the quick training guides below!

Hill Training

Endurance Training

Recovery Training

Threshold Training

Interval Training

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

One Life - Live It, Love It

Interval Training

So as we count down the days until Christmas, it's also time to count the number of days left in the current year - and therefore look forward to the new year and planning what events to take part in and how to tackle them.

In this short five-part piece we'll look at the five key training areas to concentrate on to get through any event!

Interval Training

Why?

Interval training involves short and regular bursts at alternate speeds from low to high. It's an important training tool used for building up cardio fitness and maximising your aerobic capacity, also know as your VO2 max.

Everyone's VO2 max is different and it's largely determined by genes and age, and therefore it's not possible to increase it, just to make sure that you are maximising your potential. The other good news is that training at your VO2 max also increases your endurance and strength.

What?

Beginners

Three intervals of 3 minutes at high intensity, with 3 minute recovery periods between. No more than one session a week.

Advanced

Three intervals of 5 minutes at high intensity, with 3 minute recovery periods between. No more than one session a week.




Missed out on the other parts of this New Year training? Check them out from the links below:

Hill Training

Endurance Training
Recovery Training
Threshold Training

One Life - Liv 4 It, Love It

Threshold Training

So as we count down the days until Christmas, it's also time to count the number of days left in the current year - and therefore look forward to the new year and planning what events to take part in and how to tackle them.

In this short five-part piece we'll look at the five key training areas to concentrate on to get through any event!

Threshold Training

Why?

Your lactate threshold is the point at which your muscles start to become overcome by fatigue, therefore stands to reason that increasing the amount of work you can do before your reach it is extremely important.

In sportives this is likely to occur on long steady climbs, and in races having a higher lactate threshold will enable you to stay with breakaways or smash those time trials. Training at 15-25% below your maximum heart rate allows you to increase your threshold, as this will be slightly above your current lactate threshold.

What?

Beginners

30 minutes at a constant intensity of 81-85% of your maximum heart rate once a week.

Advanced

20 minutes at a constant intensity of 85-90% of your maximum heart rate three times a week.



Missed out on the other parts of this New Year training? Check them out from the links below:

Hill Training

Endurance Training
Recovery Training
Interval Training

One Life - Liv 4 It, Love It

Recovery Training

So as we count down the days until Christmas, it's also time to count the number of days left in the current year - and therefore look forward to the new year and planning what events to take part in and how to tackle them.

In this short five-part piece we'll look at the five key training areas to concentrate on to get through any event!

Recovery Training

Why?

Recovery is as important, if not more so in some circumstances, for getting fit as exercise itself - only when you've completed your training session or race can the body repair damaged muscle tissue, refuel muscle glycogen and prepare for the next level of physical exertion.

Recovery rides are a key component of this. They need to be flat and ridden at a comfortable pace - you should be able to have a conversation with your cycling companions without struggling for breath. Just don't forget to keep hydrated though, just because you're not training hard doesn't mean you don't need to take on liquids.

What?

Beginners

60 minutes once a week.

Advanced

120 minutes once a week.



Missed out on the other parts of this New Year training? Check them out from the links below:

Hill Training

Endurance Training

Threshold Training
Interval Training

One Life - Liv 4 It, Love It

Endurance Training

So as we count down the days until Christmas, it's also time to count the number of days left in the current year - and therefore look forward to the new year and planning what events to take part in and how to tackle them.

In this short five-part piece we'll look at the five key training areas to concentrate on to get through any event!

Endurance Training

Why?

Road cycling, for the most part, is an endurance sport so it goes without saying that you need to spend more of your training time at endurance intensity than anything else. Ideally an endurance ride should be between 60 and 120 minutes and undertaken at 35-45% below your maximum heart rate.

This will increase your aerobic capacity and help you burn fat more effectively. We all know that hot summer days are more attractive for long rides, but if you want to improve sportive time during the year the best time to build up your endurance is in the winter months - before the season starts.

What?

Beginners

Two 60 minute rides a week at 55-65% maximum heart rate. Include one intense interval session too.

Advanced

Three rides of 120-plus minutes a week at 55-65% maximum heart rate. Incorporate one intense interval session per week as well.



Missed out on the other parts of this New Year training? Check them out from the links below:

Hill Training
Recovery Training
Threshold Training
Interval Training

One Life - Liv 4 It, Love It

Hill Training

So as we count down the days until Christmas, it's also time to count the number of days left in the current year - and therefore look forward to the new year and planning what events to take part in and how to tackle them.

In this short five-part piece we'll look at the five key training areas to concentrate on to get through any event!

Hill Training

Why?

It's all about power - you need more of it in your legs to fly up those inclines comfortably without leaving all your energy behind. Gym sessions that strengthen your leg and back muscles do help, but you don't want to put on too much bulk as this will end up slowing you down on the bike.

The best way to get stronger on your climbs is to target your training. One key is to avoid the temptation of standing up in the saddle as it uses more than 10% extra energy according to research. To much of that and you'll have nothing left for the remainder of the ride.

Creative Commons: Flickr

What?

Beginners

Choose a hill that takes 2 minutes to climb in a comfortable gear while seated. Climb twice with a 2 minute recovery between.

Advanced

Choose a hill that takes 4 minutes to climb in a comfortable gear while seated. Climb three to five times with a 4 minute recovery between each effort.



Missed out on the other parts of this New Year training? Check them out from the links below:

Endurance Training
Recovery Training
Threshold Training
Interval Training

One Life - Liv 4 It, Love It

Key UCI Mens WorldTour dates

So another year has nearly ended, and the next is quickly approaching - which means that it's time to have a look at the UCI WorldTour calendar for the men for 2016, and the key dates. If you read the other blog posts then you'll have already seen the posts for Tour de France and the Giro, and there will be a post for the Vuelta as soon as the route is announced.

There are 27 races in the men's WorldTour (UWT) next season, stretching from the 19th January to the 1st October and only three months of the whole year (February, November and December) where there isn't a UWT event (though fear not, if you feel that's just too many months without any cycling going on - there are other events on in February so you'll only have the withdrawal symptoms for a couple of months at the end of the year!!!

January

As always the Santos Tour Down Under kicks off the year between the 19th and 24th January, just in time for the post Christmas and New Year blues to be kicking in, and the resolutions wearing off - so additional motivation to get out of the bike or cross training for the winter months, because if the pros can manage to look like that less than a month after stuffing themselves on the 25th December then there should be hope for the rest of us to manage to fit in the new pair of trousers we picked up in the January sales!

March

It's classics season! Paris - Nice, Tirreno - Adriatico, Milan - San Remo to name a few. This is the time of year when the tough men who love the one day races come out and play, usually those who don't have an eye on any of the Grand Tours later in the year but each time there is usually a couple who want to broaden the CVs. Expect the unexpected, assume it will be cold and wet, and hope for some superb racing!

April

The second month of classics, and the month of The Hell of the North (aka Paris - Roubaix). On a good day the cobbles create a dust cloud and crashes, on a bad day the cobbles create a mudbath and crashes. Other choice races in the month are the Amstel Gold, and Liege - Bastogne - Liege.

May

Giro!! 6 - 29th May. Check out more details on the first Grand Tour of the year here.

June

Only a couple of races on the UWT this month, the Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour de Suisse. Both of these are the final preparation for the main contenders of the Tour de France, although if previous years are anything to go by expect to see the winner come from the Dauphiné. Speaking from personal experience the Swiss put on a show, and it's really easy to get to all the start/finishes by public transport so if you've never seen an event on the continent then this is a good one to start with.

July

Tour de France.

Need I say more? The Tour of Poland also takes part in July, but unfortunately always plays second fiddle to the French version. The San Sebastian Classic rounds of the month, and is a good place for those who have had a poor Tour, or were never targeting the overall win to get a mid-season win under their belt.

August

Currently the dates for the Vuelta are the 20th August - 11th September, so this could be put into either or both month, but for ease of this we'll stick it in the month it starts... The final Grand Tour of the season, more details to follow when they are announced.

September

Canada month on the UWT, or at least the beginning of the month is - one day eventing in Quebec and Montreal. The month closes off with a return to Europe for the Eneco Tour between the 19th and 25th.

October

The final event to close off the season, Il Lombardia on the 1st of the month, so that technically pretty much makes it over three months until the start of the 2017 UCI WorldTour. Fear not though, we will be here throughout the pre-season, the whole of the season, and will do our best of bridge the gap into the following year and make sure you get your cycling fix!

All the details of the dates for the UWT season can be found here, on the UCI official website. Along with the details of the other categories that'll be on during the year.

Keep your eyes peeled on here for more details on the Women's WorldTour, and further info on many of the races this year - especially the Grand Tours.

Remember, Keep 'em Spinning!

One Life - Live It, Love It.

National Cycling Lottery

Something exciting is on its way...

And it's all for charity!

KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED

#NATIONALCYCLINGLOTTERY

www.nationalcyclinglottery.co.uk

One Life - Live It, Love It

Tour de France 2016

Pop it in your diary now folks.. 2nd - 24th July 2016 - Its the 103rd edition of the Tour de France, and as always it's likely to be a banger!!

As usual 21 stages make up the route, this time covering 3,519km. A total of 9 flat stages for the sprinters (including the final 'procession' on the Champs-Elysees), 9 mountain top finishes and a welcome return of 2 serious individual time trials (of 37 and 17km in length).

The Grand Departe is from Mont Saint-Michel in north west France, and then the route will visit Switzerland, Andorra and Spain (as well as a bit of France!) before returning the capital for its classic finale.

Time bonuses are back this time as well, with the top three on each stage gaining bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds respectively. This is the first time that this has featured in the Tour for 7 years, and as in other races only counts for 'normal' stages (not mountain-top finishes!).

Check out the official route in 3D below, and over the coming months we will explore the route and where it's visiting in more detail!

Enjoy!

Giro d'Italia 2016

Ok, ok...

Bit behind the times, but better late than never eh?!

For anyone who missed it, the Giro will turn 99 this year - running from the 6th - 29th May 2016, it starts with three days in the Netherlands before going back over to Italy for the remaining eighteen stages from Catanzaro and finishing in Torino.

As always, they've got a flashy promo video that was shown at the route presentation on 5th October 2015 - check it out below! (credit to steephill.tv for the link)

More details of the route, any particularly nice-looking / interesting places to follow over the next couple of months, but with the race covering 3,383km and including three individual time trials, one might be left wondering what happened to the usual brutal first grand tour of the season.

Tour de Yorkshire 2016

So it's back, after the success of the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in 2014 and the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire in 2015, Yorkshire's three day cycling race is back again in 2016!

Although the final route isn't going to be announced until later in the year (9th December 2015 to be exact), the six start and finish towns have been revealed by the race organisers Welcome to Yorkshire.

From the 14 towns that showed interest in hosting a start or finish in the 2016 event, those selected are:

Beverley

Doncaster

Middlebrough

Otley

Scarborough

Settle

With the men's elite race running from Friday 29th April - Sunday 1st May 2016, there's still plenty of time to explore the towns, the routes and the spectator vantage points for another exciting race.

The women's elite race will be held on Saturday 30th April, with more details to follow on this as they become available.

Full details and dates of the sportive that complements the Tour are also planned to be released sometime in November, although it suggests that it'll follow last year and be held on the same route and day as the final day's racing (Sunday 1st May 2016)

Lest we forget

It's always this time of year that we all take the extra time to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can live the way we do.

Those who followed the Tour de France this year, and even those who didn't will probably be aware that the route helped to mark the 100th year since the outbreak of the first World War. From the start in Yorkshire, across the sites of the battlefields in Northern France and Belgium and then onto the rest of the tour around France.

So wherever you are today - at 11:00 hours, on 11th day of the 11th month please make sure you stop for a two minute silence to remember all those who have given their lives in current and past conflicts around the world.

May they never be forgotten.

Creative Commons Licence : Calm

Cycling Sportive Review : Tour of Wessex - Day 3

"How you feeling mate?"... "Still recovering from day one, knees are f***** and I'm knackered already...!"

Usually saying this sort of thing wouldn't be quite so bad, especially on the final day of my first three day cycle event - but the problem with this was that I was only 6.5km into the 95km route, and this was supposedly the hilliest of the three! Even though I was 'only doing the short route' it still had a rather testing climb in the middle of my day and as you can see from the elevation mapping on my Strava route it wasn't completely flat all the way to the bottom of that climb either!

From what I can remember of the day (and this can't be too bad considering I'm typing this up nearly FIVE months down the line) it was one of those "normal" British days - not too hot and not too cold, even so I was still in my hi-vis waterproof for the start of the day just to make sure that my body temperature didn't drop too much quickly when I pottered over the start line. We'd managed to get ourselves into the first group to leave that day, which may have felt like a blessing as we set off with people still cheering - that bit of added enthusiasm - but once I'd been swept up by the third group within the first 5km I was beginning to think that maybe it wasn't such a great idea!!

After I'd managed to warm up my legs and had the chat the the motorcycle outrider (see above) I did find myself being caught by a group that I was more able to keep pace with, and whilst I was in no fit condition to contribute on the front of the group (bad form I know) I'm not entirely sure whether they would have wanted me slowing them down anyway! The route was a lot more open that the previous two days and meant that we did keep on getting split up as crosswinds broke through the mini-peletons.

Talking to peletons, I got a good feeling of what it must be like to be in the middle of a pro field going through some twisty town streets after I got caught by another group who all seemed to be competing together just as I got to Bridgwater. Ladies and Gents - it's a frightening experience when you have no idea where you're going, the other group is going a lot faster than you, and all you want to do is potter along and get to the end whereas they are hell-bent on getting to the finish as fast as they can! The shouting and gesticulating went on for what seemed like an eternity until I got spat out the back of the group and into peace and quiet again.

Once we'd left the town the road started to climb as we headed more towards Exmoor and to the before-mentioned climb of the day. With the experience of the day one evening (read more here) still fresh in my mind I was very keen to make sure that I was topping up my fuel reserves on-route, but also due to my knackered knees and general tiredness I didn't seem able to eat on the move and so spent quite a bit of time at the side of the road like a monkey with a banana in hand. Thanks to all those who asked whether I was ok as they wizzed past! I was fine, just a bit incompetent at the time!!

The hill started in ernest just before I hit the 40km mark and as seems to be the way when you're in a national park or around farming land the obligatory cattle grid was sat just as the slope ramped up - luckily the group I was in at the time managed to get to here just as a kindly passer-by decided to hold open the vehicle gate to the right of the grid to allow us all to flow through on the loose gravel instead! Some people did still decide that the cattle grid was the way to go but I'm pretty sure that I heard a great deal of swearing in the preceeding seconds as they wheelspan, lost all momentum and toppled off their bikes!

For the first time on the ride by legs actually felt ok as we climbed, and I came to realise that it was probably the height of the seatpost that was doing the damage to my legs rather than just the riding since when I stood up I was ok - now sensible people would have then stopped the bike when they reached the top and then adjusted the seatpost wouldn't they?... I'll still keep with blaming in on the tiredness!

Now, the decent from top of the moor?..... OMG!

I have never been quite so frightened of a decent in all my life I don't think, I'd been warned on the climb up not to go too crazy as it was a steep decent but wasn't quite sure how bad until I saw the 20% signs...

Creative Commons Attributes: 20% Sign

Brakes on. Hold on.

Well that method is all good and fine, until the brakes heat up so much that they stop working, and instead of slowing down when you squeeze the levers harder you start speeding up again!

The part of the decent that was even more frightening than this (yes, it got worse!) was watching one bike sail past me, then a loud bang ("change of cycling shorts please!!") and watching said bike skid to a halt in front of the rockface at the 90° bend at the bottom as his tyre had blown from the heat of the brakes...

Thankfully for me and the other riders who had done the decent doing our level best to pull the brake levers through the back side of the drops, the feed station was just around the corner and I joined in the scrum to bag some savoury treats before heading back onto the road again.

The next 10km were glorious - a bumpy 2.5km gave way to a supremely steady decent of around 7km where I was able to let my legs flow and make up for the agony of the morning - from somewhere they'd managed to lose the pain of earlier, although in hindsight I have a feeling it was more to do with the fact I was enjoying the ride so much I just couldn't feel the pain at that point. A sudden left hand turn in Bishop's Lydeard put me back on the flat and lumps - and much to my annoyance the knees where hurting again...

The rest of the route passed without much incident, apart from a very minor detour after missing a turning, and then being made 'leader of the pack' once I'd been shouted at by the Garmin to get back on route, and finding a load of other riders who had also lost the route but hadn't got it loaded onto their bike computers! You talk about the blind leading the blind eh?! I was just trying to have a quiet ride back to save my knees and suddenly there is a load of people relying on me to return them to base!

Creative Commons Attributes: Long Sutton, Langport

Due to my knees playing around again I ended up dropping out of the back of the group (once they'd established I wasn't leading them on a wild goose chase!) and we'd found the route signage again. I'd assumed the next time I saw them would be a chance encounter as we all wandered around looking for cake and medals but as I rounded a bend on the high street in Langport there was a flouro group with wheels waiting for me on the pavement - they'd missed the signs again and so had to put up with another 2km of snail pace before all disappearing off again as I stopped to stretch my knees out.

Now this is where I'd like to apologise to Ade (sorry mate, again!). He is friends with one of the guys I ride with from back at my parents and happened to be part of the group that kept on relying on me for navigation. He'd also had to put up with my moaning for a good part of that distance about my knees and how I was only just going to manage to get back to Somerton (if indeed I was ever going to make it back!) He was also part of the group who kept on waiting for my navigational skills on the way back and after my final stop and stretch I'm pretty sure he was expecting to just see me once he'd crossed the finish line and collected his tea and medal!

I know I am a stubborn git sometimes (some people call it stupid..) but once up the final drag and with only a kilometre or so to go I have the rather genius plan to leave the final remnants of my legs on the road and went for a balls - out TT effort and sprint to finish. With only 500m to go I hammered it past Ade, and didn't even slow to help tow him along... He was a damn good sport about it but I am sorry!!

Creative Commons Attributes : WessexSportive-5240152

After crossing the line with a stupid grin on my face I have to admit I was so glad to get off the bike - even though I hadn't pushed as hard as some of the other participants my legs certainly let me know that I'd done enough for the time being...

Thanks to the organisers of the Tour - it was a cracking event (even if you couldn't quite get the weather on the first day!), well signposted and marshaled (thanks to the motorcycle outriders as well). I'll be back at some point, even if it's just to do the full 2nd and 3rd days to start with - there is some unfinished business now! 

A special thanks as well to Robin, he was the guy who helped to push me all the way on day one and then give me the motivation to get on the bike days two and three! Between us we managed to raise over £1,800 which is amazing! Thank you to everyone who sponsored us!

Cycling Sportive Review : Tour of Wessex - Day 2

"One. more. push... Just. one. more. push... Got... to... be... nearly... there..."

It's 45km into day two of the Tour of Wessex, my Garmin 500 has decided it's had enough, I'm on the hardest climb of the day with no idea how much further up the hill to go, and I'm nearly at the same point as the Garmin.

If you've read the review of day 1 of the tour (if not, then why not?!) then you'll know that I was in a really sorry state at the end of the day, and only just managed to roll over the line - mainly due to the weather but in part due to the severe lack of training... Come 6am on the morning of day 2, just as my alarm was going off I was very much as the picture below suggests - dead to the world and not in a mood to leave the warmth of the duvet!

Creative Commons licence : Hibernation

It is amazing what a bite of food and a glass of fruit juice can do, especially when served as an appetizer to the fresh feeling of being out in the English countryside on a late spring morning. By the time the bike was loaded on top of the car I was starting to feel a slight bit better and three bananas later I was even (very slightly) looking forward to the start of the day!

Spirits were slightly knocked when we got to HQ to find that the car parking had been moved a mile round the corner - a sensible decision due to the usual car parking being torn up by cars on day one in the rain, but due to my still slight fragile feeling an extra distance on the event wasn't something I was looking forward to!!

Day one war stories were already being shared by people when we started unloading from the car, and from the chatter that we could here most people were sensible and stuck to the shorter route in the terrible weather. My bike was definitely the muckiest that morning, due to the fact that I hadn't even thought about cleaning it the night before, and really stood out as I wheeled it very quickly past all the other gleaming machines in the hope that I would be going past so quickly that it wouldn't be noticed...

If you've read some of my other blog entries then you might have seen the one about bananas, and I'm pretty sure it was me looking like the monkey this time around! I had the best part of a punch stuffed into my pockets and up the inside of my jersey along with all the other energy bars, gels and free pieces of flapjack that were being handed out by the sponsors on the way to the line. I was determined not to fall foul of what happened the day before again and with scattered sunshine at the start line I was hopeful that the weather was going to allow it as well!!

From the start we managed to slip into a larger group of riders, something that we failed to do on the morning of day one, and for anyone who hasn't felt the difference it makes of being in a larger group - the facts you hear about saving at least 10% energy when travelling at speed are very much true. We managed to keep latched onto the back of this group for the first 20km or so, just until we swept into Yeovil before I was spat out the back and didn't want to expend the little amounts of energy I was still recovering from the day before.

Creative Commons Licence : Leading the Peleton

Once out of Yeovil we carried on heading further South East in the direction of Wareham and Corfe Castle, but before we get to the first feed station I'm starting to struggle - Black Hill is the toughest climb of the day (for the "short" 80 mile course at least) and I'm starting to go the way of my Garmin which gave up the ghost about 2.5km ago after being treated the same as the bike the previous evening and not getting charged. Although the climb is only officially 1.27km in length I was at the muttering stage long before the steepest gradients of 18% and only the crazy pace of the drums beating near the top were keeping me going at all. All too soon though, the gradient and my condition got the better of me, along with someone else also giving in to the climb, as soon as I had to give up the tiny amount of momentum I had the game was up and I was then leaning on the handlebars trudging up the final part of the ascent in cleats (no easy task in itself!)

I'm not sure that a decent had ever been quite so welcomed, but it sure was for glorious to sweep down the other side towards Cerne Abbas and feed station number one! Once reloaded with the other half of the banana tree I ate that morning, and fully stocked with fig rolls and electrolyte drinks it was back on the road again, not long after the feed station the routes split and I was joining with riders I didn't know to take the quick way home. The great thing about cycling events like Tour of Wessex are that you don't need to know anyone to have a great time, I spent the best part of the next 40-odd km chatting to random people as we kept similar pace before either one moved off or stopped for a rest as there was no need for competition!

Creative Commons Licence : Milton Abbas Village, Dorset

The next climb of the day was through the picturesque village of Milton Abbas, which (so was mentioned as we rode through) where they film some parts of the TV series Downton Abbey. This was the longest climb of the day at just over 6km in length, but when you can ride through parts of the British countryside with views as wonderful as the above then you can't really complain can you?! Once we'd reach the top it was then a ride through the woodlands that surround the area and as you can see from the picture below they look superb when covered in bluebells!

Creative Commons Licence : Bluebells in Delcombe Wood, near Milton Abbas, Dorset

After rolling down to the second (and final for the shorter route) feed station of the day, and stocking up of more food and drink the remainder of the day was just wonderful rolling along in isolation apart from the increasing number of groups of faster riders doing the full 187km route that we flying past me the nearer I got back to HQ in Somerton. The energy was starting to really sap in the final 30km and my knees were in agony (more on that in the day three review) but somehow I got back, and in another show of the support that you get in events like this one of the individual riders who flew past me just before the last climb up to Somerton gave me some encouragement and therefore moral support that was greatly needed at that point (so a MASSIVE thank you to that person!)

So I'd managed to get over halfway through the event, (even if the Garmin hadn't) and for a look at the first part of my ride just click here and have a look on Strava.

For more details on the charity that we rode the event for click on this link.

And for my review of the final, and fantastic (if a little painful) day of cycling on the Tour of Wessex, make sure you keep your eyes peeled!

Keep 'em Spinning.

Robo

Cycling Sportive Review : Tour of Wessex - Day 1

So, the Tour of Wessex - This was sold to me to be quite a hard sportive but nothing that wouldn't be that bad, but I have to say whoever it was who told me that was telling a couple of fibs!

As you might be able to guess the majority of the cycle event starts off in the South West of the UK and takes in some of the lumps and bumps that the Somerset, Dorset and Devon countryside have to offer. According to the website it is "one of the biggest multistage cyclosportives in the UK" and it is certainly the biggest cycling event that I have ever taken part in with over 1,400 people taking to their bikes this year.

The 2014 event took place on the 24th - 26th May and there was certainly some mixed weather over the late Bank Holiday weekend, for those who weren't lucky enough to be in the area during the time, it rained all day Saturday!!

Creative Commons Attributes : Rain View

This is basically all I could see through my glasses the whole of the day, which is some ways was a good thing, at least I wasn't able to see all of the hills that were coming my way although on the downside I wasn't able to see when the top of the hill was coming up and therefore when the pain was about to end!

Day one, as with all the days, started off in Somerton in Somerset and headed out North West towards Bristol and Cheddar Gorge, anyone who hasn't visited the gorge really is missing out as it is a lovely place and even the climb on the bike makes you really appreciate the scenery and makes it feel like a weird and special place to ride in. This day though, it was less of the pain in the legs due to the climbing and more of the riding as hard as possible in order to ignore the damp and chill from the rain!

Creative Commons Attributes : Cheddar Gorge

A big-up to the chap also on the event who had obviously used washing up liquid or some sort of soap to soften the chamois in his shorts - whilst this might be a brilliant idea for most rides, when it's raining cats and dogs and you know you're going to be out on the road for at least four hours a foaming arse due to soap suds probably isn't the best of ways (but it certainly cheered me up at that moment and made me chuckle for the rest of the day!)

Once over the top of the gorge, the route then took us to the first feed station of the day and then past Wells and towards Shepton Mallet before tackling the next couple of climbs of the day. It was one one of these that we were all reminded of the limits that we cyclists push our bodies to - we were passed by an ambulance and then passed the scene of a participant receiving CPR. I never knew what happened for this or after they were taken away by Air Ambulance but I do hope that they were OK and are making a full recovery.

Not long after this the route split, with the riders on the shorter (sensibler) route starting to head back towards Somerton, and the mad-(wo)men set off up the steepest climb of the day - King Alfred's hill which takes you up to King Alfred's Tower on the Stourhead Estate which is owned by the National Trust.

Creative Commons Attributes : King Alfred's Tower

After a nice decent off of the hill it was time for the second of the three feed stations - a savoury bite to eat was very welcome at this point as I was really starting to struggle with the weather...

If I'm honest, I am struggling to remember the majority of the rest of the ride, which is a little scary as it is nearly 100km that I don't remember! I will admit that was nearly being pushed along for the final 32km (from the last feed station) and was a real miserable bloke to be with at that point - but as any good person will, I blame the weather!! Whilst the picture below may be a (slight) exaggeration, this is how I remember the conditions, so please feel free to leave your sympathy in the comments below! :)

CC BY ND : CX Nationals 40-44

This really was one of the worst days I have ever experienced on a bike, and I very nearly didn't take part in the next couple of days! I was so exhausted that evening that I couldn't eat, and anyone who knows me will confirm that's a sign that you really need to start to worry...!

However, I did get back on the bike the next day, so keep your eyes peeled for my review of the following days!

For more details of the route, have a look at my Strava data here

We did this ride in support of Shine Together, a charity that supports the Frenchay and Southmead hospitals in Bristol. If you'd like to read more about the charity, or would like to donate then please click on the link below.

Robin & Rob - Tour of Wessex : Just Giving page

Until next time!

Keep 'em Spinning!!

Robo