What do we do after months of moaning about the cold? Start complaining about the heat of course! To be fair, there were very few complaints about what was a quite stunning weekend, with temperatures well into the mid-20s centigrade and light winds. Most of us were more than happy to throw off the armwarmers and long-fingered gloves, and instead don the shades and slap on the suncream.
I had two rides planned for this weekend, to continue my process of adapting to back-to-back long days in the saddle. For Saturday I planned a less demanding route out towards Windsor, looping north and round the west side of Reading, before heading home through Ascot. We set off as a group of 4 at a very civilised 8.15am, being Clare, Jake and a friend of their’s called Ross, who is also doing a few stages of the TdF.
The highlights of the day were two-fold, besides the great weather and glorious English countryside. First of these was a fantastic pub where we stopped for an hour, and enjoyed some really good food – thanks to Ross who knew of The King William, tucked away down a lane in a hamlet called Ipsden, about 10 miles north of Reading, with beautiful views of sheep-filled fields across South Oxfordshire. Reminder to self – after all this ridiculous training, future rides should always include a good pub lunch. Second highlight was Jake’s increasing despair about his silly cycling tan. Wearing tight-fitting kit means any tan lines are usually highly pronounced, especially for someone like Jake, who clearly tans easily. Best of all are Jakes lily white hands on the end of his increasing sun-kissed brown arms – looks like he’s wearing a pair of white gloves, and the contrast is only going to get worse as we do more and more cycling on the TdF!
I am seriously impressed with the huge strides that Clare has made as a cyclist in the few months since she started doing this properly. She’s gone from having never ridden as far as 20 miles in January, to being able to ride 125 miles in relative comfort. Huge respect. And with that kind of form I’m convinced she’ll have no trouble completing the 5 stages of the TdF that she’s signed up for. More than I can say for some of the other TdFers, which might sound a bit pretentious of me, but I’m quite shocked at how little training some of the guys have done given the multiple stages that they’re planning to do. It’ll become pretty apparent pretty quickly what condition everyone’s in once we start the TdF proper.
Sunday was even hotter, with a much more challenging test ahead of us for the King of the Downs sportive – 115 miles up and down the North Downs, covering many of the climbs that I’ve been over many times over the last few years in Surrey and the Ashdown Forest. Jake and I (wisely) chose to get an extra hour in bed, so set off from the Gatwick starting point about an hour after the rest of the TdF group at close to 8am. Fuelled by the usual early doors adrenalin rush and the temptation of catching the TdF group up the road, we set off at a ridiculous pace for a couple of guys that had done 120+ miles the day before and had a long hilly day in the saddle ahead. The first half of the course was mainly in the Surrey ‘Alps’, taking in Leith Hill, Pitch Hill, Combe Bottom, Ranmore Common and Box Hill among other favourites. Having loosened the legs on these early hills, we managed to join a fast-moving train of riders on the way back to Gatwick and were moving along at 20-25mph at the half-way point.
Reaching the second major feed station at about 55 miles, we realised we’d caught up with the main group of about 10 TdF riders – they set off again while we waited to fill up water bottles (essential in the heat), but we were soon on our way again, now as a 4, having picked up Doug and John, both of whom are strong riders, so we were able to work well as a group swapping off the front of the line in turn. The terrain was easy and perhaps lulled us into a false sense of security ahead of the hill through Weir Wood in the Ashdown Forest, which was really just a warm-up before the leg-breaker that is aptly named the Wall. Some septuagenarian nutter was running up the Wall, with his hairy gut unclothed and hanging out in its full resplendent glory – happy chap, I said he was a lune to be doing that (takes one to know one) and that there was plenty of good TV nowadays to entertain an old man.
From this point on, Jake & I rode with the main TdF bunch – good to meet a few more new faces. I finished the ride well exercised, but not overly tired, having set a good pace over the final 15-20 miles back to Gatwick. I’ve got virtually no riding at all next week as we’re off camping for the weekend – a really tough decision to rest up, but I definitely I owe it to the family and my body could probably do with some respite – apparently recovery time is good for you, I just feel uncomfortable looking at a big fat zero in my training diary.
Weekly totals
Commute – 75 miles
Other rides – 235 miles
Funds raised to date £3,925.
I had two rides planned for this weekend, to continue my process of adapting to back-to-back long days in the saddle. For Saturday I planned a less demanding route out towards Windsor, looping north and round the west side of Reading, before heading home through Ascot. We set off as a group of 4 at a very civilised 8.15am, being Clare, Jake and a friend of their’s called Ross, who is also doing a few stages of the TdF.
The highlights of the day were two-fold, besides the great weather and glorious English countryside. First of these was a fantastic pub where we stopped for an hour, and enjoyed some really good food – thanks to Ross who knew of The King William, tucked away down a lane in a hamlet called Ipsden, about 10 miles north of Reading, with beautiful views of sheep-filled fields across South Oxfordshire. Reminder to self – after all this ridiculous training, future rides should always include a good pub lunch. Second highlight was Jake’s increasing despair about his silly cycling tan. Wearing tight-fitting kit means any tan lines are usually highly pronounced, especially for someone like Jake, who clearly tans easily. Best of all are Jakes lily white hands on the end of his increasing sun-kissed brown arms – looks like he’s wearing a pair of white gloves, and the contrast is only going to get worse as we do more and more cycling on the TdF!
I am seriously impressed with the huge strides that Clare has made as a cyclist in the few months since she started doing this properly. She’s gone from having never ridden as far as 20 miles in January, to being able to ride 125 miles in relative comfort. Huge respect. And with that kind of form I’m convinced she’ll have no trouble completing the 5 stages of the TdF that she’s signed up for. More than I can say for some of the other TdFers, which might sound a bit pretentious of me, but I’m quite shocked at how little training some of the guys have done given the multiple stages that they’re planning to do. It’ll become pretty apparent pretty quickly what condition everyone’s in once we start the TdF proper.
Sunday was even hotter, with a much more challenging test ahead of us for the King of the Downs sportive – 115 miles up and down the North Downs, covering many of the climbs that I’ve been over many times over the last few years in Surrey and the Ashdown Forest. Jake and I (wisely) chose to get an extra hour in bed, so set off from the Gatwick starting point about an hour after the rest of the TdF group at close to 8am. Fuelled by the usual early doors adrenalin rush and the temptation of catching the TdF group up the road, we set off at a ridiculous pace for a couple of guys that had done 120+ miles the day before and had a long hilly day in the saddle ahead. The first half of the course was mainly in the Surrey ‘Alps’, taking in Leith Hill, Pitch Hill, Combe Bottom, Ranmore Common and Box Hill among other favourites. Having loosened the legs on these early hills, we managed to join a fast-moving train of riders on the way back to Gatwick and were moving along at 20-25mph at the half-way point.
Reaching the second major feed station at about 55 miles, we realised we’d caught up with the main group of about 10 TdF riders – they set off again while we waited to fill up water bottles (essential in the heat), but we were soon on our way again, now as a 4, having picked up Doug and John, both of whom are strong riders, so we were able to work well as a group swapping off the front of the line in turn. The terrain was easy and perhaps lulled us into a false sense of security ahead of the hill through Weir Wood in the Ashdown Forest, which was really just a warm-up before the leg-breaker that is aptly named the Wall. Some septuagenarian nutter was running up the Wall, with his hairy gut unclothed and hanging out in its full resplendent glory – happy chap, I said he was a lune to be doing that (takes one to know one) and that there was plenty of good TV nowadays to entertain an old man.
From this point on, Jake & I rode with the main TdF bunch – good to meet a few more new faces. I finished the ride well exercised, but not overly tired, having set a good pace over the final 15-20 miles back to Gatwick. I’ve got virtually no riding at all next week as we’re off camping for the weekend – a really tough decision to rest up, but I definitely I owe it to the family and my body could probably do with some respite – apparently recovery time is good for you, I just feel uncomfortable looking at a big fat zero in my training diary.
Weekly totals
Commute – 75 miles
Other rides – 235 miles
Funds raised to date £3,925.
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