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Cycling log - random events in the day of a cyclist II

cutting42 said:
What a hero, I am miles from any KOM's even with weight and age rankings.
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I'm old and slow but have a few outright KOM's (3 or 4 at the moment, plus a few I'm 2nd on including one in France). The trick is picking segments that suit me - I've a reasonable amount of power but too much weight so that means flatish off-road segments suit me best. You'd think that downhill ones would be ever better but it would appear I'm too much of a pussy to KOM on those!
 
Woodface said:
Downhill KOMs, not a great idea
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It's a quiet road, good visibility, surface is ok. Theres another, much steeper hill a mile away that I'm keeping away from as the corner at the bottom is a little unsighted and much tighter. At least it all makes me feel alive!
 
Tony Lockhart said:
It's a quiet road, good visibility, surface is ok. Theres another, much steeper hill a mile away that I'm keeping away from as the corner at the bottom is a little unsighted and much tighter. At least it all makes me feel alive!
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There's a sweeping corner at the bottom of a hill on our local time trial circuit that gives me the willies. I'm usually doing somewhere between 30-35mph, but it's blind and if you were to drift across the center-line you'd be roadkill, since there's often oncoming traffic. Each time I'm approaching it I have the little devil on one shoulder telling me "don't lift off, stay on the tri bars, think of the PR" and the angel on the other telling me "think of your family, burying your crushed remains". I breath a little easier when I'm past that corner.
 
sean99 said:
There's a sweeping corner at the bottom of a hill on our local time trial circuit that gives me the willies. I'm usually doing somewhere between 30-35mph, but it's blind and if you were to drift across the center-line you'd be roadkill, since there's often oncoming traffic. Each time I'm approaching it I have the little devil on one shoulder telling me "don't lift off, stay on the tri bars, think of the PR" and the angel on the other telling me "think of your family, burying your crushed remains". I breath a little easier when I'm past that corner.
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There are a few of them near me where if you want to place well on Strava you'd have to be willing to take a risk on there being no traffic coming round the corner. Although it's a very quiet road I'd still rather not risk life and limb to raise my Strava placing!
 
Woodface said:
A fair few in the peaks have been designated dangerous, Winnatts Pass for example. You really would want to go for it down there.
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wouldn't ??

Tony Lockhart said:
At least it all makes me feel alive!
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I agree. Until it suddenly doesn't. Plus out here in the colonies there's always the medical bills at the back of your mind. A badly sprained wrist cost me about $800 (x-rays and two office visits) a couple of years back. Dammit - that's nearly the cost of cool aero wheels.
 
sean99 said:
wouldn't ??



I agree. Until it suddenly doesn't. Plus out here in the colonies there's always the medical bills at the back of your mind. A badly sprained wrist cost me about $800 (x-rays and two office visits) a couple of years back. Dammit - that's nearly the cost of cool aero wheels.
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I’ve stopped hurtling through forests off-road. I fell off too often and knew I’d have a big off at some point.
 
A bit of an eye opener today. The MTB is hors de combat, I broke a gear hanger last week and the replacement is in the post. My cycling mate rang, did I want to get out? Well yes, but I only have the old pub bike Sod it, tyre swap, road kit off, make it work. Half an hour later I had a 1995 Raleigh M Trax, Ti and steel, rigid fork, rim V brakes, a Panaracer 26 s 1.8 front and a Tioga 1.95 rear. Both very knobbly. Let's go.

What a revelation. Other than crap brakes in the wet it rode like a dream. Steel is real. Titanium's pretty damn tasty too. The back end rode better than my hardball ally Kona Kula. It turns out that Raleigh knew a bit about frame design 25 years ago, and Special Products knew how to assemble them. Not that there are any original bits left. 20,000 miles plus, there's life in the old nail yet.
 
I had a lovely Sunday morning ride today. Went east from Watford across the Chilterns, didn't think it was that hilly as nothing is particularly high but flippin eck, there are a lot of smaller ups and downs including a few 12% and one 14% gradients which is v steep for me, can only get up them grinding out on the lowest gear. Ave speed suffered but I did my first 2000 feet of climbing in a single ride in which I am chuffed about.
 
cutting42 said:
I had a lovely Sunday morning ride today. Went east from Watford across the Chilterns, didn't think it was that hilly as nothing is particularly high but flippin eck, there are a lot of smaller ups and downs including a few 12% and one 14% gradients which is v steep for me, can only get up them grinding out on the lowest gear. Ave speed suffered but I did my first 2000 feet of climbing in a single ride in which I am chuffed about.
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I live in Aylesbury and ride there all the time and the hills are indeed deceptive. Clearly we’re not talking the Derbyshire Peaks or C2C but there are enough short sharp hills to get the heart pumping.

If you’ve not done them, Kop Hill and Peters Lane are great which are two sides of the same hill, Whiteleaf. When I say great I mean hard (!) but only very short. Smalldean Lane near Princes Risborough has a wall of tarmac to climb at a 1 in 5 but it's only short. If you do that then there is the Speen hairpin in about half a mile. Another joyous climb. Then there is Wigans Lane up to Bledlow Ridge, and Chinnor Hill, and Ivinghoe Beacon, loads of climbs.

In fact look here for a few https://roadcyclinguk.com/sportive/ten-best-cycling-climbs-chilterns.html

and here https://totalwomenscycling.com/road-cycling/steepest-15-climbs-chilterns-cycleway/2

Perhaps I’ll see you out one day. I'll be the one pushing the bike.

Rob.
 
RobFTM said:
I live in Aylesbury and ride there all the time and the hills are indeed deceptive. Clearly we’re not talking the Derbyshire Peaks or C2C but there are enough short sharp hills to get the heart pumping.

If you’ve not done them, Kop Hill and Peters Lane are great which are two sides of the same hill, Whiteleaf. When I say great I mean hard (!) but only very short. Smalldean Lane near Princes Risborough has a wall of tarmac to climb at a 1 in 5 but it's only short. If you do that then there is the Speen hairpin in about half a mile. Another joyous climb. Then there is Wigans Lane up to Bledlow Ridge, and Chinnor Hill, and Ivinghoe Beacon, loads of climbs.

In fact look here for a few https://roadcyclinguk.com/sportive/ten-best-cycling-climbs-chilterns.html

and here https://totalwomenscycling.com/road-cycling/steepest-15-climbs-chilterns-cycleway/2

Perhaps I’ll see you out one day. I'll be the one pushing the bike.

Rob.
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Thanks Rob, maybe we will meet, I was thinking about getting a train out to Aylesbury and basing a ride out there sometime.

My next planned ride is to Wendover I might swing down to include Whiteleaf, thanks for the links.
 
Just shy of 56km into this afternoon's ride my right pedal dropped off. It's been a long trip home from Chiswick - a mix of walking and one legged cycling over 3 hours. Just glad I have mtb shoes rather than road ones.
 
mentalp said:
Just shy of 56km into this afternoon's ride my right pedal dropped off. It's been a long trip home from Chiswick - a mix of walking and one legged cycling over 3 hours. Just glad I have mtb shoes rather than road ones.
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And I thought I had a tough day being battered around by strong winds and pummelled into the ground by heavy rain - a three-hour walk/one-legged ride home would have killed my spirit to live for sure!
 
I haven't been able to get on my bike since Tuesday, too much smoke in the air. Can't see the trees 500M away.
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