A Weekend in the Peaks

I'm sat on a train, and to be honest I'm not looking forward to the ride back home from the station, up Highgate Hill. I've had enough of hills for a few days... 

I've been back home riding in the Peak District, where I originally started road riding when I was at University in Sheffield, I've not been riding up here for over 3 months now!

Saturday was a 60 mile loop with Jack, including some classic climbs and the famous Snake Pass, the road between Sheffield and Manchester. A 9.4 mile climb averaging 2.4% which may not sound much, but the last 2 miles average around 6-7%. 

I had set out with my goal being to hit this hard, but I knew given the headwind all the way up, today was not going to be my day. I felt good throughout the climb and put in a solid effort and time for the conditions. Pleased with how I felt! Well it was certainly windy on the top! A very quick smash down into Glossop and we then headed over towards Hayfield and Chapel-en-le-Frith. I've not ridden this route since 2012, and I'll be honest I had forgotten what the hills were like between Glossop and Chapel. Couple of cat 4 and 3s! With the wind up Snake I knew if I put in a big effort upto Mam Tor from Chapel, I could potentially bag a few top 10s. I felt very strong, concentrated on my breathing and pedaling technique and  set a good pace and rhythm. The final sprint up Mam Nick nearly did me though.... 

We then descended down Winnats Pass, which given the amount of traffic out that day wasn't that fun, through Castleton and pushed onto Hathersage, next stop, the Outdoor cafe (they do pints of coffee) Jack and I stayed in there for a good hour... then decided to do one final climb upto Fox House. A 1.5 mile climb at 5.4% average. Wind may have been in our favour, but the cafe stop probably wasn't. Final decent into Grindleford and it was back to the car. 

Once on Strava I was pleased to see a good selection of top 5 and 10s, plenty of PRs and one KOM.... 

That was set on the climb from Chapel, I felt good so was pleased with that result. Overall a truly brilliant days riding, beautiful scenery and hills and glad to be back!

Overall just shy of 60 miles, but a lot of climbing at nearly 5,900ft

Saturday evening was then spent plotting Sunday's ride. A 70 mile loop from Nottingham into the Peaks, again taking in some good climbs.

Sunday was different, no sun and even more wind! I gritted my teeth and set off, immediately feeling the effects of Saturday's ride in my legs, never mind, must push on. The first 20 miles were flat through various small North Nottinghamshire towns and was all very boring. First climb through was upto Crich, a long climb of varying gradients, and this wasn't enjoyable. Never the less I then headed down into Ambergate to climb back upto Crich from the other side. A 2 mile climb at 5.4%. From the top I then descended into Lea and over towards the famous Riber climb, a local and national legend. A short 0.3 miles averaging 15.2% with sections at 25% plus... I actually arrived from the wrong road, so had to ride down it just to ride up, nice! It was then down into the Spa town of Matlock and out the other side. My target. Two Dales. I'd never actually ridden this climb before, always opting for Beeley, but the lure of another 20% was too much so I hit it. It was a mistake, the road was so slippy and couldn't stand up, so had to sit and painfully pedal away on my 39:25 setup... I reached the top of the moors, needing food, some midget gems and a tunnocks bar had to do... I've mentioned the wind before, but this wasn't fun, a headwind for 30 miles near as dam it all the way home now! The route from Kirkby was the same as the outward journey so I knew what was coming, and that was a few mean little climbs and some small towns. Good to get home, feet up and eat everything (thanks mum) really should have used the time and washed my bike but that can wait till next weekend... Today's efforts weren't as good as Saturday, but still a good ride. 70 miles and 6,700 ft of climbing...

I'll be back in the Peaks soon and hitting some of classic climbs and even Snake again, depending on the wind! 

The Past Two Weeks...

The last two weeks have been relativity quiet.

 - 23 Hours 37 Minutes on the bike

 - Alot of wind

 - 4 LP Club chaingangs

 - Lots of commuting

 - A bike wash 

 - A run

 - 3 KOMs

It's the middle of Feb and i'm feeling good, the club chaingang is working really well on Tuesday and Thursday. It's an hour/45 mins of pain in a chaingang format, with a paceline and then a balls out mad 3 laps sprint to finish (all around the Inner Circle of Regents Park) Pain whatever way you looks at it... In addition to this i'm doing extra Regents Park Intervals and Inner Circle Hill sprints. 

What's that? What are those KOMs? The Hills of North London are a perfect training ground and actually prove to be quite tough given you're effectively in the centre of London, not really known for it's hills.

That morning I had set off for work with the sole aim to beat my previous days effort (2:27) up East Heath Road in Hampsted:

0.6 miles of poorly surfaced, busy road with a flatish section in the middle and a few speed bumps for good measure. I hit the bottom section hard, felt good and pushed on, with a big effort in the final, smoother section of the climb, legs were burning and there was traffic at the top! After the climb I went to work, i reckon i had beat the time, but by how much I had now idea.

Anyway, uploaded to Strava and I bagged the KOM, along with two other on the road. Time of 2:16, average of 16.9mph. I'll take that for now. Although I can't imagine my KOM will stand come summer and drier conditions.

The Boardman Story: Part 3

Halfords have my forks now. Their quality control department have studied them and concluded: Metal Fatigue.

The forks are no longer under warranty and Boardman don't make this model of bike and therefore don't make the forks so they can't get a direct replacement, which to be honest I did expect. They have however offered some replacement forks direct from Madison. They appear to be some standard carbon bladed road forks, and they are offered to cover half the cost of these £60, which I guess is fair enough?

The other option (which i'll probably go down) is buy some new forks and then get Halfords to reimburse me half cost, given I need mudguard eyelets and clearance for a mudgard I think i'll get some CSN Winter ones from Ribble (£80) I had these on my Ribble previously, and to be honest they were ideal.

So I think that's the final part of the story? I'm still not 100% sure on the metal fatigue conclusion though...

Essential Winter Gear

Winter is nearly over right? Ok, so it probably isn't in reality but I am keen to see what people think is the most important piece of winter kit, and in truth I don't work very well in the cold, well my fingers don't at least!

I'm an active member of Bike Radar, so posted a thread up asking what other users think is the most important piece of winter kit actually is, and what bit of kit has helped them continue to ride through winter...

The answers were to be honest, as I expected, many people actually opting for Turbos and Rollers to ride in Winter as opposed to ride on the road. Now I've not got a turbo or rollers, I used to have rollers, but if i'm honest I didn't use them enough to really warrant keeping them, plus they are not what you would call quite.... I decided to opt for riding outside.

Another popular answer was mudguards and I 100% agree. I use SKS Chromoplastic Full Guards, they are secure, don't rattle, keep you dry, look good, fit well, cheap, tough. In fact I think they are brilliant. Obviously this does mean your bike needs to have mudguard eyelets however you can get small P clips to allow normal forks to take them, in my opinion well worth looking at. You'll stay dry as will the person behind you. Perhaps worth noting that in serious rain there is still some spray. To stop this you'll need a huge flap, often a homemade job...

Lots of recommendations for a Buff. I've got one (or 4) lying around and they are so flexible. Wear it on your head, around your neck, over your whole head... It keeps you warm, keeps the wind out and can be stuffed in a pocket when/if you get too hot.

Base Layers. SO important and an obvious piece of kit. For me, the Craft Active Zero Extreme is brilliant, light, comfortable and very warm, keeps the wind off you and there has been many a cold and frosty day when I have been very thankful for this.

GLOVES! This for me, is one of the most important aspects of winter cycling kit. I use Sealskinz Winter Gloves, warm and comfortable, although sometimes in very cold conditions the tips of the fingers will still be cold, overall very good and 100% waterproof! There are a lot of recommendations for Craft Thermal split lobsters, they make sense and keep your fingers warm (I would imagine) but I do question how user friendly they are a lobster claw fit... Maybe some I should try next (this) winter.

Other recommendations & Tips:
Gore Thermo Overshoes - Very warm apparently, although never used them.
Tin Foil over toes - Interesting - No idea if this works
Slime tubes - Not used, but a great idea and certainly helps stopping punctures and therefore standing at the wide of the road cold.

Most of the information above, is I guess, common sense, however I always find it very interesting to see what different riders use in terms of kit. There are obviously other important pieces of kit, one of which is Overshoes. Something which I am yet to actually wear. So other recommendations would be good.

For now, Spring must be around the corner, this may be optimistic, but sun, shorts and a jersey seemed a lot time ago now...

The Boardman Story: Part 2

Halfords rang me on Tuesday. 

They have studied the pictures I sent (see previous post) and have concluded the steerer snapped due to metal fatigue.

Now, I'm not sure about this. If this was the case then surely all Boardmans of this age (2010) would be suffering a similar fate?

In addition to this, Boardman no longer make these forks, however they are looking into other options regarding sourcing some from somewhere. As well as the cost involved.

I however think Halfords/Boardman should maybe look into why the steerer snapped in a bit more detail, after all I don't want other people to suffer a similar fate!

It was agreed I would drop the forks off at my local store for them to be collected and examined in more detail. 

No doubt part 3 will contain more information on what Halfords find out...

A Weekend In Two Countries

The forecast didn't look good. It looked like we would get wet, and with that in mind, Thursday night I picked a van up, packed it with my bike and Lucinda's bike, ALL my cycling gear and wellies (in hindsight a wetsuit might have been a good idea) and set off to Dave's on Friday morning. 

The destination, my friend Dave's house, just North West of Shrewsbury, whilst technically still being in England was the base for our weekend riding. My brother Jack was also coming for the weekend, so we had a nice little group of 4.

Upon arrival it was straight to the pub, and plan our riding for the rest of the day. Dave had plotted what looked to be a great little 25 mile loop, and was just what we needed before our bigger ride on Saturday. The ride started from Dave's, well, it was raining, not only was it raining it was very windy... This would be an interesting ride, especially given that I had left my jacket in London. The ride started off along the flat country roads, pace was good and within minutes I was soaking, but all good fun. 10 miles in Dave pointed to a large hill to our right (Rodney's Pillar), we were going up that. As you can see from the profile below the ride was pan flat until this point, so a nice Cat 3 climb, 2.8 miles, 5% average and 711ft gained would get the legs hurting. Climb started off through a small housing estate on a wide road, and was quite steep. I kicked and put in a big effort to see Dave off, but decided to hold back and save myself, we then all rode the climb together, this was meant to be a social ride after all! The climb was a narrow singletrack road, lots of mud and standing water, with a good mix of gradients. Really good climb and nice to be back on something longer than a Hertfordshire 1km sprint climb.... The descent however was sketchy at best, I need to buy some new gloves that are actually waterproof (more on this to follow) Back on the flat and it was around 7 miles back to Dave's through some very flooded roads. 2 countries in one ride, how novel.

Dave had planned a 55 miles ride for Saturday, the weather had other plans. We started off along a twisty flat B road for a few miles before hiting the first climb. A good cat 4 to really get the legs and body warmed up, I put in some effort at the the bottom (segment) and seemed to put in a good time, 7th on this climb. The ride then descended into the valet and quickly out the other side, a short sharp climb was waiting for us, along with ice and a headwind... We regrouped In a small village where the route split, we opted for the shorter route as the weather had no truly arrived. This did however mean another cat 4 climb, easy to start with which then kicked to 20% for the final section! Very nice views from the top though. 

We then descended along the twisty road which joined a quick A road, and a section along the flat, well that was until the climb, the final one of the day, and the one before the cafe stop, another cat 4 and a really wide and smooth climb. Pace was dictated as social up here, mainly because Dave had the KOM... 

We got to the cafe, just as rain got worse and stayed there for longer than was really needed, the rain finally passed and we were off again, straight back to Dave's along the flat. There was of course one section where effort was required. A section of a local TT course 1.2 miles long. I put in a big effort , averaged 30.1 mph and bagged second. A breif play in some floods and a standard photo next to the England/Wales sign and then back for a curry and a beer, not to mention trying to warm up! 

A great weekend riding in some very testing conditions on some excellent climbs, now to get back when it's dry...