Review of the Year

I love numbers

As such I tend to set myself targets, create spreadsheets to monitor progress and scour articles about gear ratios, rotational mass, power to weight ratios and other arcane things.  Needless to say, none of this affects my personal performance and I potter along as before.As a result of all this my favourite essential cycling accessory is probably my Garmin 800 which provides loads of data to keep me out of mischief for hours.
Having taken up cycling only recently, about 5 years ago now, and being an old age pensioner, I do have to accept that my ability on a bike is only going to go one way...downwards.
The act of retiring, and the receipt of a pension,  gives one a crystal clear perception of one's own mortality. The annuity bean counters make an estimate of one's life expectancy and payout accordingly, in my case they placed their bets on my lasting until I was 73 years old, anything beyond that then I am winning! My son tells me to be more optimistic and so for the purpose of target setting I assumed I would live until I was 80 years old. So, being a cycling novice I decided, at 60,  upon a distance target of 2000 miles ( 3200 km ) a year with the aim of reducing this by 100 miles per year to allow for growing infirmity. This then acts as the main yearly goal and for this year that translates into a minimum distance of  2400 km or  1500 miles .
Having so far ridden 7030 km and climbed over 50000m  then this first target has been achieved.

My second aim was to explore more of our countryside on my bike. Here I count this as a partial success. I have been invited to join in with other cycling groups in Cheshire, Shifnall, Leicester and a lung busting ride in Derbyshire. At all the places I have made new friends and been  made exceedingly welcome despite them all having to travel at a much slower pace than they are used to in order to accommodate me. Thanks go to Mark, Andrew, David and Scott for letting me tag along on  their rides. I was hoping to do a short cycle tour but in this I failed, not wanting to cycle alone and being unable to find others who had the same desire.

One of the main reasons for being wary of cycle touring was my lack of ability as a bike mechanic and a fear of  breaking down in the middle of nowhere. During the year I have tried to address this deficiency and regular readers will have seen my efforts as a Novice Bike Mechanic.

Not having been a lifelong cyclist, I do not possess the fund of stories of the trials and tribulations of times past when all the hills were steeper, the wind was windier, the rain was  wetter and carbon was a thing confined to pencils. Indeed climatic and geographical change seems to have happened in the 40 years prior to my getting on a bike!  One of the things I did learn from these tales of yore was that "Steel is Forever "and that Mercians were the Prince of Cycles. And so the highlight of my year was in obtaining my own handmade, personally fitted Mercian Vincitore Special on my 65th birthday in March. This is an example of engineering beauty and excellence and draws spectators wherever I go.

As my interest in cycling has grown I have become aware of the competitive side to this sport. Whilst I am now too old to take part,  I have enjoyed watching the sleek riders on their aerodynamic machines as they compete in local Time Trials, probably the purest form of cycle racing. At the other end of the spectrum I have revelled in the mud spattered and bedraggled riders as they attempt the Cyclo Cross challenges that our  autumn and winter can throw at them. Muffled up against the driving wind and rain I am glad that I AM now too old to participate in this peculiar form of personal pain.

Perhaps my greatest achievement this year was to undertake Wiggy's Challenge. Wiggy was an excellent and enthusiastic cyclist who for a variety of reasons had fallen into the state of becoming a " Lapsed Cyclist ". His challenge was to resolve this problem by undertaking to ride every single day for a week and he asked others to join him on this venture and share their experiences. I wrote an article about this and as a result of the Challenge I have encouraged many others to get on their abandoned bikes and ride again. It mattered not how far, how fast or how often; the important thing was to cycle again and experience the joy and companionship such an activity can bring. So far I know of about two dozen people who have returned to cycling from me telling them this story.

Finally, this year I learnt something about the importance of nutrition to a cyclist. Whilst there are many tomes written about this and experts a plenty; at my level I have discovered it is all about CAKE. Being the generous sort of guy that I am, I wanted to share this knowledge with others and so have produced a little pdf booklet  entitled " Cycling Food on the Go  - Recipes for Success ". If you would like a copy you can get it from :-

http://thediaryofmybike.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/cycling-food-on-go_15.html

GS Gazzetta goes into Space

My last posting told of a potential battle of MIND over Body, in particular my mind and my body, as I contemplated the challenges which lie ahead for attempting LondonRide100 next summer. While I am a firm believer in the power of the mind, I do recognize that it may need a little help in getting my body to a condition where it can survive this challenge. And so I have devised a training plan, or rather a rough mental idea of some of the things that need to be accomplished. The goal is to be able to ride faster, further and for longer than I have ever previously managed. To achieve this I will also need to pay attention to my dietary requirements both on and off the bike.
So this week I have been on 2 training rides, the first of which was with Mark, a friend from GS Gazzetta, who can always be relied upon to travel fast and push me to my limits and beyond.   The bare statistics of the ride can be found at http://app.strava.com/rides/19151008#comments

My instructions to Mark were quite clear before we started; a flat route and an average speed of ~21kph, my target speed for the London100. To a mountain goat however, flat is a very relative matter and I also discovered that he cannot count despite working at a school. I pity the children!!  Thankfully Mark just pointed out Mow Cop to me as we sped along as it was not on to-day’s route , though he promised me that we could work on my climbing legs next time I visited ( Thanks Mark! ).  The weather was dry and warm and quite a few cyclists had ventured out which seemed to spur some hidden racing instinct into my companion as we were forced to chase down any cyclist ahead of us, especially if they were female, blonde and had a pony tail! I was too exhausted to be distracted. We managed a quick circuit of Jodrell Bank and were travelling at such a speed that I thought the dish was going to track us as we hurtled off into space, or in this case a tea shop which I INSISTED was a mandatory requirement of any ride, a concept alien to Mark ( I wonder if this flaw is common to all GS Gazzetta riders? ) The ride was good and exhilarating and at an average pace of 26kph for 60km it was a good workout, as the average heart rate of 140bpm, which is race pace for me, demonstrated. Thanks Mark.
As an aside, shortly after the ride had finished and we were sitting In Mark’s house, my left calf cramped up solid as a rock. I obviously must pay much closer attention to on-bike nutrition.

Increasing average speed will not by itself be sufficient, endurance is also required. And so my second training ride of the week looked at this aspect. For the past two weeks my regular ride with the Derby CTC Grand Veterans has ventured into the Peak District where the climbing seems relentless. So this week I was expecting a much more gradual affair in the flatter lands of South Derbyshire. It did not turn out quite as planned and the route details can be found at  http://app.strava.com/rides/19485842

Rather than meander alongside the River Derwent and remain in the valley we turned towards the hills around Bretby and encompassed the 3 counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire. Our leader had discovered a ‘short cut ‘ at one point which seemed to entail riding along bridleways and across some fields. I am not fond of this type of cycling. especially on my new Mercian Vincitore which is built for roads, and got dropped. However a combination of phone and Garmin 800 ( I KNEW that it wasn’t just a toy :-) ) meant that we became reunited again. I can now manage 80km rides fairly comfortably but need to increase this range quite dramatically and so as we neared ride’s end I left my companions and put in an extra 25km loop at a fairly quick pace to take me over the metric century.
A good week with a mixture of speed and endurance.

Next week I have entered, I must confess with a lot of trepidation,  a SKY Ride in Leicester. It is the Market Town Ride - Strong Plus which covers 50km but it says at a fast pace, much faster than my normal average. Entering at this level for my first ever GoSKYRide is perhaps being overly optimistic. However I hope it will once again introduce me to some new roads, new people and be another small step on my journey to fitness.

Tours with a Mercian

G S Gazzetta Leisure Tours

Cycling at its best is such a social sport and as I became a little more confident of my ability I started to ride with others. The last blog article described a typical ride with the Derby CTC. But I enjoy talking about cycling as well as being in action, and so I joined GS Gazzetta.


"G S " stands for "Gruppo Sportivo", "Sporting Group " - a classic Italian cycling reference relating to members of a cycling club. G.S. Gazzetta membership is OPEN and is registered with British Cycling. The members of G.S. Gazzetta are truly international giving the club the great advantage of sharing unique knowledge and love for cycling. Founded in the spirit of the Italian " Gruppo Sportivo ", membership to G.S. Gazzetta is open to all cyclists, regardless of location, status or ability.


Members of GS Gazzetta are spread far and wide and the majority of them never meet up face to face. But through Twitter I met Mark who lives  a mere 50 miles from me and so we decided to go on a ride to-gether, the first ever ride of the Midland Branch of GS Gazzetta.
It needs to be understood here that cyclists can be classified into one of four categories:
Professionals; Club Racers, Club Cyclists and , finally, Pedal Pushers. It seems to me that the vast majority of the GS Gazzetta peleton belong to Category 2 ( sportif riders are included here ) whilst I am very firmly embedded in Category 4, whilst Mark is definitely in Cat 2.
Whilst the language of cycling may be the same between these different categories, the interpretation is very different indeed as was amply demonstrated in this ride, a leisure ride.

                                         

Ready to Depart           

And so last Saturday I loaded my dream Mercian Vincitore Special onto the car and set off for the land of Mow Cop, Teggs Nose and the other Alsager mountains. Mark had asked me what sort of ride I fancied and what distance and pace I could manage. We had settled upon around 75km at a leisurely pace with just a couple of very minor hills. I should have been more specific!  For a club cyclist *around* 75km means anything between 75 and 150km and in pedal pusher terms an average speed of 25k/hr for over 100km is definitely not leisurely!

Teresa had provided me some advice on the need to refuel and hydrate when out on hard rides and to be fairly disciplined about it. Thank goodness I took her advice  and so I was fully equipped with snack food, sugar boosters and liquid.  We started off by going up hill, which in my innocence I took to be the first of the two *minor climbs *. Wrong!  A minor climb to a pedal pusher is a virtual downhill doddle to a proper cyclist. This was going to be a hard ride. Having done about 10k and ascended the first of the Strava Categorized climbs the sugar boosters were in action.  Of course, one of the benefits of climbing mountains is the coasting down the other side. Wrong again.  Someone needs to teach Mark the benefits of freewheeling when you are already travelling at 60+ km/hr.


                                                                      

Mark the Super Domestique

          
He was however proving to be an excellent super domestique and as he towed me along the stretch towards our lunch stop it was exhilarating to be travelling at an average of greater than 32km/hr for km after km.  A new first for me.

We stopped at Audlem for lunch at a great cafe with plenty of character and a favourite haunt for cyclists who kept on arriving as we were there. It seems that cafe stops are not normally part of Mark’s agenda, another huge difference between cyclists and pedal pushers.  I should say that we had already done three climbs by lunch and so I was expecting a flat journey back, but that of course neglected the definition of a * climb * by a proper cyclist.  So i was wrong again!

We covered 3 counties on our ride; Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire and some of the scenery was magnificent despite the glowering sky which threatened to soak us at any moment.

                                          

Beeston Castle

Having found a flat bit Mark pointed out to me Beeston Castle and proposed this as our next point of call....not to stop and admire you understand, not even a pit stop, more an opportunity to gather evidence of our visit. I understand now why they build castles atop mountains. The invading cyclists are cream crackered by the time they reach the summit.

                                          

After conquoring the castle

I would have liked to tell you about the afternoon tea stops..but there weren’t any, just a 70 km sprint home where Mark’s wife was much more understanding and soon had the kettle on.

To demonstrate the differences between youth and a  pensioner, my average heart rate during the ride was 138bpm with a maximum of 166, noting that my ABSOLUTE maximum should be <169bpm. Mark meanwhile cruised along in sub recovery mode with an average of 118bpm and a slight bit of effort raising it to 162bpm at one point.

It was a great day for me, and Mark provided sterling work as a super domestique. Thanks!

I must look out for other opportunities of GS Gazzetta Leisure Tours, but first I need to draft some Rules of Engagement

The Dream Machine

At my age, and having just recently taken up cycling, I am never going to be a competitive or class cyclist. Before retirement, I worked at Rolls-Royce plc for more than 30 years and, though not an engineer, I grew to admire the precision, excellence and beauty of the engineering involved in the manufacture of aero engines. This admiration for engineering excellence was the inspiration behind the desire to have a bicycle which reflected the same values and beauty. And so was born my wish to have a handmade bike frame, equipped with accessories which reflected this thirst for engineered beauty.  
The area where I live used to be the Kingdom of Mercia but is now more prosaically known as Derby. However the Mercia name lives on in the production of hand built bikes by Mercian Cycles and so I determined to have built what would be for me my dream machine; a hand built Mercian Vincitore Special. It was 6 months in the building and this week I took possession of it. I have a raft of pictures showing all sorts of details but below is an image of the finished article..