By unpopular demand, a very brief return of my training diary ahead of my challenge later this year. Firstly the challenge itself – I was hoping this year to do my first mountain bike challenge – biking to Everest base camp - but alas there was only one person out of the 6.9 billion on this planet who thought it was a good idea and the trip was cancelled due to lack of interest. Oh well, next year maybe.
So instead I stumbled by accident on the “Cent Col Challenge” – a challenge to ride 100 cols (mountain passes) in 10 days. Known as I am for doing stupid things on a bike, this is quite easily by far the most stupid yet. By way of comparison in 2008 I did the “Etape”, an amateur leg of the tour de france route – it was in the Pyrenees and climbed about 4,000m vertically over a ride of 170km. It was physically and mentally “quite tiring”, I cried twice and couldn’t walk for 3 days afterwards. This challenge is to do 10 Etapes (+ a bit) back to back, all in the Pyrenees – 10 days of 200km a day, averaging 4,300m climb a day, a total climb of 43,000m (26.7 miles) over 10 days – so a vertical marathon… It is in all senses of the word Stratospheric (actually, almost Mesospheric…). I will of course be tapping your pockets for a good cause in the weeks ahead.
http://centcolschallenge.com/challenge/
But anyway, back down to earth, or at least the Yorkshire Dales.
Training this year seems to have gone reasonably well, I’ve been in the UK a lot more which is nice and the weather has been fab, I’ve clocked up around 4,500km so far this year though all on the flat. Like anything in sport zipping around in the east anglian flatlands is one thing, climbing the Tourmalet or one of the other Tour classics is somewhat different – this weekend in Yorkshire was intended to remind the body and mind of the challenge ahead.
Saturday June 4th – The Dales Grimpeur – 210km, 4,800m of climb.
I last did this ride in 2008 as training for the Etape, it was a “bit of a struggle”, finally getting around in 12.5 hours:
http://etape-2008.blogspot.com/2008/06/bit-of-long-day-madonnas-breasts.html
This year, 3 years on, 3 years fitter, 3 years of experience climbing mountains later and I did it in… 14 hours…
The day had started off perfectly, setting off at 6.30am, sun was out, lovely and warm, blue sky and straight out into the wilderness – perfect cycling weather in perfect cycling country. Alas all that was about to change… within a couple of hours the wind picked up and the weather closed in, on the tops of the moors it was proper nasty – One motorcyclist stopped on his way down and told me in his best Yorkshire accent “take care son, it’s pretty bleak on top” and it was - circa 40 to 50 mph headwinds and thick mist (apparently it was a scorching day back home down south) and one on descent in particular I was bought to a dead standstill by one blast, unable to make any progress in my lowest gear even on a reasonably steep down slope.
The only other people out and about were people doing the Oxfam Pennine way challenge – a 100km walk over 30 hours- they were looking pretty bedraggled… (though the picture here of the Ribble Viaduct not quite doing justice to the conditions).
So instead I stumbled by accident on the “Cent Col Challenge” – a challenge to ride 100 cols (mountain passes) in 10 days. Known as I am for doing stupid things on a bike, this is quite easily by far the most stupid yet. By way of comparison in 2008 I did the “Etape”, an amateur leg of the tour de france route – it was in the Pyrenees and climbed about 4,000m vertically over a ride of 170km. It was physically and mentally “quite tiring”, I cried twice and couldn’t walk for 3 days afterwards. This challenge is to do 10 Etapes (+ a bit) back to back, all in the Pyrenees – 10 days of 200km a day, averaging 4,300m climb a day, a total climb of 43,000m (26.7 miles) over 10 days – so a vertical marathon… It is in all senses of the word Stratospheric (actually, almost Mesospheric…). I will of course be tapping your pockets for a good cause in the weeks ahead.
http://centcolschallenge.com/challenge/
But anyway, back down to earth, or at least the Yorkshire Dales.
Training this year seems to have gone reasonably well, I’ve been in the UK a lot more which is nice and the weather has been fab, I’ve clocked up around 4,500km so far this year though all on the flat. Like anything in sport zipping around in the east anglian flatlands is one thing, climbing the Tourmalet or one of the other Tour classics is somewhat different – this weekend in Yorkshire was intended to remind the body and mind of the challenge ahead.
Saturday June 4th – The Dales Grimpeur – 210km, 4,800m of climb.
I last did this ride in 2008 as training for the Etape, it was a “bit of a struggle”, finally getting around in 12.5 hours:
http://etape-2008.blogspot.com/2008/06/bit-of-long-day-madonnas-breasts.html
This year, 3 years on, 3 years fitter, 3 years of experience climbing mountains later and I did it in… 14 hours…
The day had started off perfectly, setting off at 6.30am, sun was out, lovely and warm, blue sky and straight out into the wilderness – perfect cycling weather in perfect cycling country. Alas all that was about to change… within a couple of hours the wind picked up and the weather closed in, on the tops of the moors it was proper nasty – One motorcyclist stopped on his way down and told me in his best Yorkshire accent “take care son, it’s pretty bleak on top” and it was - circa 40 to 50 mph headwinds and thick mist (apparently it was a scorching day back home down south) and one on descent in particular I was bought to a dead standstill by one blast, unable to make any progress in my lowest gear even on a reasonably steep down slope.
The only other people out and about were people doing the Oxfam Pennine way challenge – a 100km walk over 30 hours- they were looking pretty bedraggled… (though the picture here of the Ribble Viaduct not quite doing justice to the conditions).
So it was a pretty long and “interesting” day weatherwise. The views from the tops of the moors would have been stunning had you been able to see more than 2 metres or had you been able to look around without getting blown off your bike and I would certainly have been quicker than 12.5 hours had I not spend about 4 hours basically going, well, nowhere, each pedal forward being met by a blast of headwind, I was doing about 8km / hr on the flat, around ¼ of my normal cruising speed.
But, that bruising encounter with the weather aside it was gods own country for cycling, barely a car all day. You know you are in proper wilderness when you find the following on your route:
But, that bruising encounter with the weather aside it was gods own country for cycling, barely a car all day. You know you are in proper wilderness when you find the following on your route:
Sunday June 5th – Etape Du Dale, 170km, 3,700m of climb.
When in Rome, etc...
I stumbled by chance on the Etape Du Dale route on one of the cycling forums, it started just down the road from my Saturday ride and went an almost entirely different route, so it seemed rude not to give it a go. Had I been doing the ride on the official race day I would have been “DFL” by a long long way, my poor body and mind somewhat reluctant to co-operate for the first couple of hours with every brief stop being met by five minutes of uncontrolled shivers as the body said “stop being nasty to me”. The weather wasn’t helping once again, thankfully less windy but now being replaced by torrential rain. It had been forecast to be 18 degrees, it was actually 8 degrees – or, as one local put it in their best Yorkshire accent in a pub “it’s brassic out there…”
The ride went up to the Tan Hill Inn, the highest pub in Britain, the one that was famously cut off last winter for a week. When you climb up there it’s easy to see why, there is literally nothing around for a 10km radius – pretty daunting even on a wet and windy June day, downright scary in the middle of winter. They served me the cheapest drink I’ve had in decades – a pint of lime and soda I wanted – 25 pence the price!.
Interesting I just checked the results page from the 2011 Etape du Dale, I took a rather leisurely 12 hours to get round though this did include a full breakfast, elevenses and lunch stop in cafes / pubs. My on bike time was 9.5 hours – the winner did it in 6 hours 19, that’s really truly astonishing, an average of 27km / hr is what many people are happy with on the flat, let alone over some pretty tough hills.
That’s all from me for now, more follows in August following a weekend in the Welsh mountains.
When in Rome, etc...
I stumbled by chance on the Etape Du Dale route on one of the cycling forums, it started just down the road from my Saturday ride and went an almost entirely different route, so it seemed rude not to give it a go. Had I been doing the ride on the official race day I would have been “DFL” by a long long way, my poor body and mind somewhat reluctant to co-operate for the first couple of hours with every brief stop being met by five minutes of uncontrolled shivers as the body said “stop being nasty to me”. The weather wasn’t helping once again, thankfully less windy but now being replaced by torrential rain. It had been forecast to be 18 degrees, it was actually 8 degrees – or, as one local put it in their best Yorkshire accent in a pub “it’s brassic out there…”
The ride went up to the Tan Hill Inn, the highest pub in Britain, the one that was famously cut off last winter for a week. When you climb up there it’s easy to see why, there is literally nothing around for a 10km radius – pretty daunting even on a wet and windy June day, downright scary in the middle of winter. They served me the cheapest drink I’ve had in decades – a pint of lime and soda I wanted – 25 pence the price!.
Interesting I just checked the results page from the 2011 Etape du Dale, I took a rather leisurely 12 hours to get round though this did include a full breakfast, elevenses and lunch stop in cafes / pubs. My on bike time was 9.5 hours – the winner did it in 6 hours 19, that’s really truly astonishing, an average of 27km / hr is what many people are happy with on the flat, let alone over some pretty tough hills.
That’s all from me for now, more follows in August following a weekend in the Welsh mountains.
