On my ride home on Friday a woman stepped out in front of a bus and I ploughed straight into her. Fortunately I didn’t injure her at all. This was on a road which consisted of a bus lane and two lanes of traffic in Holborn. I’ve come so close to knocking pedestrians down through them just stepping out into the road a number of times – either not looking or being engrossed in their phones. I’ve always slowed down or managed to flick the bike to the side to escape damage to either of us previously.
Clearly it’s easy to do and pedestrians have right of way, but stepping out in front of the bus you have just got off and walking into a further two lanes of traffic is madness. Especially when there’s a signal controlled crossing a few metres away.
The woman was clearly shocked and started to have a go at me. The driver of the bus also had a pop and then the mini cav driver adjacent also put his bit in. I still believe it’s not my fault as you should look when stepping out. If it had been a motorbike or even car then things would have been a lot worse. She walked off and I went home after straightening my bars out.
I woke up yesterday with a bit of a stiff neck but didn’t think anything of it. By the end of the day I was in a considerable amount of pain and couldn’t turn my head or swallow properly. I woke up this morning with even worse symptoms which meant I couldn’t do the ride I had planned after a photo shoot. What’s worse is that I’ve seen so many other people out there riding their bikes, having fun. Roadies, families, couples and just people who’ve dusted their bikes off for the day. It makes me so angry to not be one of them enjoying the freedom of two wheels whilst also being in so much pain. Today feels like a completely wasted day. Just lying down and eating pain killers.
What’s further frustrated me is that my ‘stupid little cup’ target of 1250k this month on Strava is now probably completely out of the fucking window. I’ve done 1050k and short of a miracle tomorrow morning won’t be getting 200k done in the next 4 days.
I recently got handed a rather nice looking flyer in the Rapha store about a hilly route in North London. I thought I’d give it a go but unfortunately the URL rapha.cc/hillride is dead / kaput / 404’d etc. Google didn’t turn up anything so I ended up contacting Rapha.
After contacting them it took a while to work out what it was actually referring to but it turns out it was for the Pantani Commemorative Ride on the 11th May. So some more searching got me to this Eventbrite page which has a link to a GPX file. So I’ve taken that and re-made it in Strava routes* and will have a go on Thursday. Rapha have a load of other rides on their Ride With GPS page.
So why write this post? Well hopefully the next person searching for it will find this page first without having to go through all those steps. Or maybe they’ve run out of these flyers now.
*it’s very annoying not being able to import files into their route builder yet.
Graham kindly organised a weekend in Wales which has been in the diary for ages now due to needing to get a booking at the hugely popular Old Skool Mountainbiking lodge.
We left on the Friday morning which was great to avoid the after work dash. We met Graham at the services on the M1 and headed up to Cannock to get a loop in there.
Arriving at Cannock we met Graham’s mates Matt and Mark and did the usual faff in the car park and got on it. Within five minutes I was completely soaked in sweat. It was so warm in the forest and a merino t-shirt was clearly the wrong idea. As is usual with Cannock it takes a while to get used to the terrain, which in some ways is similar to Swinley. Those rounded polished pebbles always seem to worry me but after a while we got used to it. We stopped regularly and at one point chatted to a guy who had fallen off the little north shore section into some stinky mud. It’s hard not to smile but he had seen the funny side fortunately which was good as most of the left hand side of his body was covered in mud.
At one point you have to make a choice between a longer and shorter trail. I looked at it with Matt T and we agreed on the longer one but somehow took the shorter turn. We were back at the car park pretty quickly and soon realised the mistake. This then begged the question of what to do next as a 10k loop round Cannock wasn’t really enough to satisfy. Graham and his mate Mark did the 10k again and Matt, Matt T and myself went out to do the full 25k loop which involved more sweat and airless riding in the forest. Although entirely worth it for some of the descents even though the braking bumps had become steps. At what point do braking bumps become drop offs?
After some food we headed off to the lodge via the most beautiful road I have ever been on. Matt spent most of it hanging out of the window taking pictures. Whilst the drive was enjoyable it was pretty hard to not look at the view so we pulled in and had a good look at the glory of the landscape beneath us.
After that it wasn’t long to get to Sian and Daffyd’s place (The Old School House). As usual we were greeted to a very friendly arrival and tea/coffee/beer etc. We had planned to have a bit of a ride that evening on the road bikes but instead settled down to relax for a bit and then headed to the pub for dinner. Our extra 25k loop at Cannock had put the schedule back a bit. We didn’t manage more than three pints before heading back to get an early night.
I got up at 7.30 with Matt who wanted to go running up to a little wild swimming area further up the mountain. I rode up there with Mark but by the time we’d pumped our tyres up and got out we’d missed the two Matts and completely cocked up the directions. As it was raining we came back and got on with breakfast. Reviewing the GPS log when we got in we realised we had been within a few hundred metres of them which was a real shame. However it was a bit damp and it was good to get back and get warm and drink coffee whilst waiting for breakfast.
Breakfast was superb as usual and reluctantly we headed out to Coed-Y in the rain expecting the usual damp ride. I bought a cheap jacket in the shop and Matt T grabbed some overshoes. They had apparently been having a good day selling wet weather gear! Matt went for a 13 mile run instead of riding but we headed out on The Beast. The rain soon subsided and jackets were too warm as it was still hot and muggy. The damp formed up this incredible mist over the valleys we were riding around.
The trails were riding really well and The Beast has now become one of my favourite trails overall. The rocky drops and technical sections really great as was Fester and the Adams Family. It was great to fly down them and we hardly saw a soul round the trail. I even cleared the rooty technical uphill section that had become my nemesis on recent trips. We stopped at the little cottage for a bite to eat but bizarrely were one of only two groups there, the other being a couple. Normally it’s rammed so maybe the wet weather had scared everyone off.
One highlight was seeing an Owl fly a few feet in front of us and then sit in a tree and watch us. Amazing to see one during the day and also that close.
We skipped the final climb as the Beginning of the End was shut and it just meant a boring climb on fire road for nothing. We got back to the school house and had a shower and got changed before heading out on a route I’d previously prepared for the road bikes. I’d run it past Sian and Dafyyd first to check it wasn’t terrible and that I hadn’t made some obvious mistakes. I managed to convince both Matt’s to join me.
For the first part it mainly consisted on non-stop climbing on a single track road. I soon got to that point of no more gears. That dreaded place where you know you can’t just click through to one more like you usually can on a mountainbike. So nothing for it but to get out of the saddle and get grinding away at it. Matt didn’t seem overly convinced as per below.
Soon enough though we crested the top of the hill (mountain?) and were treated to some incredible scenery as we freewheeled down. We had also seen a few massive birds of prey as well as the usual many sheep. Having done lots of pretty technical riding at Coed-Y this seemed far more scary riding down a tiny little road with a gravel bit in the middle and stones and sheep shit all over it. Gently did it.
This continued for a while longer and involved opening and closing lots of gates as well as being barked at by a dog at each and every farm we passed. It really was the most incredible scenery and it felt like hardly anyone ever came up here. It felt like what you imagine road riding should actually be about, not a loop out to Kent or a few laps or Regents or Richmond park. It felt properly isolated and a proper challenge.
After a while we ended up on the main road briefly before turning off to do more climbing. This just seemed even more painful and the descents that followed were even scarier due to green slime on the road in places. We ended up in a bit of a chain gang to get past the next main road section and then back off through a few picturesque little villages and into the back of Coed-Y-Brenin. We ended up on the same gravel fire roads we’d ridden earlier and then up and over slightly to get back to the School House. Whilst it was ‘only 50k‘ it felt fairly epic due to the amount of climbing – 1100m or so. I’d imagine you’d get so fit living round there and riding that sort of terrain all the time on or off road.
Anyway, back for another shower and then off for more beer and as much food as possible before bed.
Next morning I had wanted to get that wild swim in. Having got up 30mins too late I ended up driving the van up there with Matt (and his mug of coffee) instead of cycling. It really is a beautiful location and Matt T was already in doing a few lengths. The water was brown and peaty but still clear. As I put my toes in I could see little fish around the bottom in the rocks.
It was painfully cold at first and I was gasping for air but once I’d got through the initial pain and shock it felt incredible.
After a few lengths I got out to head back for breakfast. The feeling you get on your skin after a swim in that water is amazing. It’s so refreshing and I was fully awake by that point. Both Matt’s ran back whilst I drove.
After that it was packing up and off to Llandegla which didn’t disappoint as usual. The first climb was fairly arduous following the mega cycling day before and it was still hot and clammy. The trails were in superb condition and riding really nice and fast. After that we tucked into the BBQ at the cafe, oogled the bikes in the shop and headed back to London.
You always forget what a hell of a long way it is back. It’s generally a 550 mile round trip which is a hell of a lot of driving even split over a weekend. One of the nicest things about the weekend though was the mixture of activities rather than just a few hours at a trail centre and then beers. Taking the road bikes and having a swim all seemed like a good idea and will definitely be happening again. I’ve already started looking out for more wild swimming opportunities and hope to have a dip in a spot I’ve found in Hay on Wye in a few weekends with Emma. I wonder if she’ll let me take the road bike?
Having done the Dunwich I’m thinking of the next challenge to push myself a bit. Strava have the Monthly Training Series they do and I think I’m going to have a go at getting to 1250km in July. So far I’ve got to 608km and have been busy multiplying out how much riding I need to do to get to that final milestone. We’re off to Wales this weekend and I’ve even totalled up the three trails and how much that will contribute. Cannock = 24km, The Beast at Coed-Y 38km and 21km at Llandegla. I’ve even considered taking the road bike to Wales to do a bit more in the mornings to top it up a bit.
I might need to start getting up a bit earlier to get the 40k average per day I need! I think the bike will need a service at the end and I’ll have a couple of days off riding after that though (maybe).
I guess I’m going to be seeing a lot more of this thing.
I’ve been talking about wanting to do this since 2008 on and off and it always made my list of things to do. But somehow I never either felt confident enough to do it or it clashed with Birthdays or some other excuse was found. This year I’ve increased my cycling considerably, mainly as a result of getting a Garmin and using Strava. More on that another time, but essentially I’ve been tracking all my riding and upping the distance at every opportunity.
So I tried to get a bunch of people together and see if they’d be up for it. Graham, James and Paul and Magnus all agreed. Some of whom had done it before but James and Paul hadn’t. I also mentioned it to Andy who surprisingly to me hadn’t done it before either.
I’d spent a while thinking about the whole event and planning it in my mind. I was really keen to not ride with a rucksack at all and see if I could keep everything I needed in my jersey pockets. It’s so much nicer riding a road bike without a bag and I’ve even started trying to get to work some days without one. The only concession I did make was a little saddle bag, which although ugly, did a great job of keeping tubes and tools out of my jersey. My layering consisted of a jersey, arm warmers, gilet and then soft shell. I carried the gilet and soft shell in a little Rapha feed bag knowing that I’d put them on soon enough and fold the bag up in my jacket pocket.
The day before I dropped my van off with supplies in at the car park at Dunwich before cycling the 50k to Ipswich on the Brompton. I left a cool box with bacon, eggs, sausages coffee and beer in so that we could cook when we got there rather than queuing for the cafe. This proved to be well worth the effort in the end. On the actual day of the ride I had hoped to get a nap in the afternoon, in anticipation of the sleepless night ahead. Unfortunately I was too excited to sleep although closed my eyes for a bit. Emma cooked me a big bowl of wholemeal pasta before I left and I ended up getting ready a bit early before proceeding to pace around the flat a bit with all those nerves and excitement running through me.
We met James, Magnus and his friend, who was on a Brompton, at Camberwell before heading up to London Fields where a substantial crowd had already formed. We stood by the pub for a bit to watch the spectacle of it all and had a chat with a few random people as well as admiring the bikes. Everyone arrived and we headed off about 8.30. There was all sorts in terms of bikes and riders. Your usual roadie variety, the old bearded tourer, tandems with couples on, Boris bikes, plenty of Bromptons, trikes, recumbent trikes, recumbents as well as a tall bike and lots of other weird and wonderful things including one guy riding a BMX and another riding one of those cross trainer type contraptions you sometimes see round Hyde Park.
Magnus got a route card just in case and at the bottom of the page was this fantastic quote.
In England they ask: “Is it for charity?”
In France, Spain, Italy or Flanders they murmur: “What beautiful madness.”
Madness indeed!
Trying to get out of London with the thousands of people on bikes wasn’t all that easy due to the sheer number of people on the roads and we lost Magnus and his mate on the way. These roads clearly were not normally design for or used to seeing these numbers as well as Sat traffic. A few young lads stopped outside a shop to high five everyone going past which was great. You could see there was the chance of some conflict with frustrated drivers though so we took a left through the side streets thanks to Andy and a bit of local knowledge. When we rejoined the ride we were on the stretch up to Epping Forest which has a gentle incline. Nothing too much but a reminder that it wasn’t going to be flat all the way. A neat group of us was formed although I found it all too tempting to ramp up the pace and chase others down. I had to remind myself that I was the only one with the map in the Garmin and that I should really be riding with and looking out for James and Paul who I had coerced into doing it. I also had to think of the many kilometres ahead!
As the night drew in the line of red lights formed this amazing long line of light stretching into the distance. A few people stopped to watch as we all came past and a group of three young girls told us they “… Loved us all!” which was nice. We settled into a reasonable rhythm but ultimately the pace was a little quick to keep everyone together. It felt great to be moving at such a good pace and felt like I was being dragged along by the whole event. A gentle south westerly wind also seemed to push us further along.
After a while we got separated from Andy and his other buddies. It’s not that easy keeping a group of around 8-9 people together mixed in with thousands of other riders. James, Paul, Graham and myself settled in to our own little group and caught up with the main group at the first pub stop. Whilst I didn’t dare touch the booze a few others had a pint. Having not ridden that kind of distance before I was really keen to make sure nothing jeopardised it at all. Orange juice and lemonade was fine for me.
We joined the group again and headed back out. By this point we were well outside London, past the M25 and into the rolling countryside. At points the blinking red lights stretched out for seemingly miles on end as the landscaped allowed. It was such an unusual and strangely moving sight to see. All these people moving as one through the night to their destination of the sea in such a peaceful way. There seemed to be very little noise that I was aware of, just the hum of the tyres in the road and the occasional change of gear.
The air was hot and humid when we started and I was beginning to think I wasn’t going to need my jacket. Shortly after this the heavens opened and we were subjected to what felt like 30mins of torrential rain. I put my jacket on and within five minutes it had wetted through. Shortly after it started collecting water on the inside around the cuffs. It felt nice at first to be a bit cooler but then it was just grim. Thoughts of cycling the whole thing like this just couldn’t be entertained as it was too depressing. It felt like one of those silly Rapha videos where they’re suffering on the Isle of Sky in the pouring rain. But it’s all good because it’s all about the suffering right?
Anyway it stopped after a while and our minds stopped freaking out so much. We stopped at another pub to dry out a bit and have some bars before pushing on. We didn’t really ever stop for very long at each place as I didn’t want us to get cold or too settled in. I was also quite keen to get to the beach before it got too mobbed as well as see sunrise on the coast.
Throughout the ride you never really felt alone at any point. There was always someone around either riding or fixing a puncture or just stopped for a breather. There were also pretty good signals from a lot of the riders pointing out pot holes or man hole covers which made it even more pleasurable. One person hadn’t been so lucky and had taken a bad hit on their wheel. Fortunately their friends stayed there with a light to warn others of the danger. The road was generally smooth and it really did feel like you were gliding along. I tried really hard to keep a high cadence and not grind away at the gears. This seemed to do the trick and also eased the pain in my right calf which had appeared when we started – probably from the 50k Brompton trip the day before. My right knee had also started to flare up a little but by spinning out it soon subsided.
As the Garmin showed 100k down I felt like we had passed a milestone. It felt like it was simply a matter of ticking down in 5k increments to get there. It all felt quite achievable although I did feel like you had to turn something off in your head to get to this place and keep going.
I had the occasional chat with the odd stranger whilst sharing a similar pace. The one I enjoyed the most was talking to a couple on a tandem who were steaming along at a fair old pace. I also had a quick chat with a woman on a fixed who “…thought it seemed like a good idea earlier“. I passed her a bit later and tried to reassure her that it was only another 20k to go.
At one point we got to the bottom of a large hill and I stopped to re-group. A female police officer on the other side of the road wound down her window to tell me there was a cafe just round the corner that was open and drive up there to show me. It was very kind of her and we stopped there for a bacon roll (only £1.70) and coffee. I had a second with an egg as the first one was so delicious. It was so so good to eat some proper food and not energy gels or bars and it went down a treat.
Back on the road the water from the downpour had started to evaporate and we had this lovely cycle through winding country lanes in the mist again with the lights trailing off into the distance. Visibility was pretty poor but it further added to the atmosphere of it all. We got the occasional glimpse of the moon but it was cloudy for most of the night. I can imagine it would have been so different with the bright moon shining down lighting the way, maybe next year.
We stopped again later in a little village where we caught up with Andy and Big John having another pint. This was about 2am and a few of the locals were propped at the bar a little worse for wear. One of them took a shine to my hat asking if he could have it whilst I asked the barmaid for some water. Having paid good money for it I declined but passed him over to Andy who had the same one on. I left him to it and when he left the pub was minus a hat having sold it for £5 to a very drunk man who claimed it was his birthday.
Onwards again and by the time we got to about 140k we were treated to a lightning show on the horizon. Then the sun started to appear – well the light lifted as it was still cloudy and dawn appeared over the horizon. James had a bit of a mechanical, just a stiff link, which we attended to and then pushed on for the beach.
The route I had downloaded to the Garmin was completely incorrect by around 120k. So we gave up and just followed people which worked fine for the most part. Obviously this further reinforces the idea that you shouldn’t trust everything you get off the internet!
The last leg of the ride I got a bit carried away with the pace and left the group. I waited for them every now and then to regroup but then as we all seemed to know what we were doing I kept on. I got onto a bit of a power burn in my enthusiasm to get there although some Dulwich Paragon riders seemed to object to that. They kept passing me then trying to force me over as the other riders tried to sit behind the leader. A lack of hand signals from them further compounded my frustration. They were the only rude riders I met throughout the whole thing. I eased off the gas and just let them do their thing as tiredness and a dangerous group ride didn’t seem like an ideal combination. They had also led me off the actual route which was a bit annoying. Fortunately two others came past who seemed to have made the same mistake but knew how to get back. I had a really nice chat with them and it transpired that they had managed to avoid the rain through a carefully timed food stop. I couldn’t quite believe it as I still hadn’t finished drying out from our soaking 60k in! Back on the route I headed straight for the beach. On the corner where you turn in the the long road down I met another bunch and gave my remaining water to a women who had run out. We all discussed how utterly exhausted we were and then rode on. As I’d driven down this road on Friday I had a rough idea of what was left and decided to really give it some just to shake out every last bit of energy from my legs. I even ended up with 4th place on the Strava segment as a result!
It was such an incredible feeling getting to the beach. It wasn’t too busy yet but I got down there and shortly after James and Paul joined us. Graham had stopped for a coffee and arrived a little later. We had a few pictures and I bumped into Bakes from Chocolate Foot (an old mtb forum) who I hadn’t seen in a long time. Having done the pictures thing and trying to send a text to Emma to tell her I was still alive, I found Andy and his mates and got the beer open. It was delicious! I’ve never tasted anything so good. It started to rain again so we sheltered in the van for a bit before getting the stove out to make a stove top full of coffee.
I did Andy’s group first as they were due to ride to Ipswich to get the train. Then after we had coffee I went for a swim. Whilst a little cold, but not as bad as I had expected, it was great to have some cool water on my legs and stretch out. Also it was great to clean of all that sweat and road muck.
It felt like such an incredible achievement. I was particularly pleased that James made it and at a decent pace at that. This is after he emailed me earlier in the week saying he’d struggled to cycle to work one day! It’s hard to describe how it feels to have done that overnight and such a long distance – it’s the longest ride I’ve ever done. It is also meant I cycled 380k last week which is by far the biggest week I’ve ever had on a bike. There was a real sense of euphoria at the end as well as relief. We were also lucky to not have any punctures or mechanicals along our way.
After cooking our breakfast an enormous queue had formed at the cafe which I was so glad we didn’t need to use. We loaded the van and headed back via Ipswich to drop Paul off. I then stopped a bit after to have a nap before driving the rest of the way back.
I got in and proceeded to tell Emma all about it still bursting with excitement and also strangely emotional about the whole thing. It’s like someone had let you in to a secret club of sorts – those who have done the Dynamo are clearly different from this who haven’t. I then eat loads, slept for three hours, ate a bit more then slept for a little longer before getting up to eat even more and watch the football. I then slept like a baby overnight and unfortunately had to go to work the next day. I couldn’t face cycling so got the bus which I can’t remember the last time I did that. I spent all Monday thinking about our mad little adventure. I tried explaining it to some people but no one really understood. That’s fine though but it stands as the best bike riding experience I’ve ever had and so pleased I did it and with such an amazing bunch of people!
And the vital stats? 7 hours 10 mins actual pedalling time, 1330m of ascent and 193.8km covered. Amazing what you can do really.
You always think your ride was epic and a real achievement but then there’s always someone who’s done something far more impressive. In this instance it’s Jeff Branham who entered, and won, the Tour Divide race from Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, New Mexico which is 2700 miles away. The race is entirely un-supported and riders take all their kit with them which is tough enough as it is but this is all off road. The interview with him is brilliant if a little nutty.
Oh, my demon was not enough sleep. I went out hard in the beginning, too hard and didn’t sleep much at all in the first three days, none the first night, 1.5 hours the second night, 3 hours the third, also did around 600 miles. I cooked myself right off the bat and was tired for the rest of the race. I would say I slept 3-5 hours a night most of the time. I tried to push it again at the end and sleep less, but ended up taking cat naps to keep my eyes open…
Well worth reading the interview to realise just how far we can push our bodies and minds if we really want to.
Another brilliant Tumblr from a man who’s had enough of First Capital Connect and their late trains. Each time they’re late he Photoshops a picture of the CEO Tim.
I’m nervous to even post this as it’s been on my list of things to do since 2008 but it looks like I’m finally going to get round to doing the Dunwich Dynamo or Dun Run.
Every year, on the Saturday closest to a full moon in July, thousands of cyclists meet in London and ride 120 miles through the night to the Suffolk coast. There’s no organisation, support crew or logical reason to do it. Introducing Dunwich Dynamo is easy as it’s just a beautiful thing.
I’m fit enough and have done plenty of cycling recently and really do want to do this now. There’s simply no excuses not to. I’m going to go up on Friday and leave the van there with a cool box with bacon, eggs, milk etc and use the stove to cook a decent breakfast before having a swim and a nap and getting back to London. Blankets and a down jacket are also going to be waiting for me as well as fresh towels.
I’ve also spent quite a bit of time thinking about kit and what best to wear to get through the night. From speaking to others it seems like 3/4 length bibs area good idea, to keep the knees warm, and then a jersey with arm warmers and also a soft shell in a musette for when the temperature drops. I really want to avoid riding with a bag on so have bought a saddle bag, which although ugly, will do a decent job of packing inner tubes etc which frees up my jersey / jacket pockets for gels and bars. Two water bottles should be ok and fill up where possible on the way.
The total route from home to Dunwich is 185k which although I’ve never done I’m reasonably confident about. I’ve done 130k on rough ground on the Brompton so proper roads with big wheels should be fine.
In terms of prep I’m going to an Italian restaurant with Emma on Friday night to carb load and then have a relaxed day and maybe a nap on Sat. I’m really hoping for good weather but think I really need to do it regardless. All I have to do is make sure I don’t lose the van key on the way!
This little video showing the 2013 Dynamo is great. It shows all sorts of people doing it on various types of bikes and the sheer number of people looks to make for a great atmosphere.
After my brief but exciting trip to racing in the Smithfield Nocturne recently (which I want to write about soon) I do really feel the urge to have a go at a proper road race. I’ve read about the racing at Crystal Palace in Matt Seaton’s book “The escape artist” and I felt my heart rate rising just reading about it. It sounds brutal in the extreme. I also fancy trying out Hog Hill which Magnus recently had a go at. This also means a 100k round trip to get there, race and then get back, further compounding the pain.
Digging through my Instapaper feed earlier I also found another description of racing at Crystal Palace by Andy Waterman which did the Twitter rounds a while back. I felt a similar kind of increased heart rate to Seaton’s piece and slight sense of unease at the pace and pain involved in it. But in the midst of all of that this paragraph in particular made me smile.
Week-in, week-out, the circuit makes fools of visiting elite riders who turn up boasting triple digit VO2maxes, free bikes and a sense of entitlement, only to be put in their place by the local hero, invariably a middle-aged man in mountain bike shoes who knows Palace, and the way the races there unfold.
I love the sound of this! I’m going to go and watch the next one with a view to getting my race license and having a go. It’ll be fun getting dropped out the back I’m sure but everyone has to start somewhere.
