Tuesday mtb ride

Today me and roger went out for our first mtb ride for ages. We rode over Leith and did a bit of singletrack. There snow was still squeaky and grippy.

On the ride back we did the usual climb up White Down, it was still hard compacted snow and quite treacherous. On the first bend a 4wd had gone over the edge and was stuck, a little farther up we were shocked to see a Land Rover lying on it's side. Just past the Land rover were three other cars abandoned by the road side.



Unbeknown to us the Land rover was a recent occurence. At the junction there was a police cordon and an officer and the driver of the Land Rover. He said he just been driving down the hill when he started to slide and it turned over. His wife and kids had been ferried away by the police and he and the officer were waiting for the police car to return for them.

thetford rnd 2

Jane had a been suffering with a sore throat almost since the last round and had only been on the bike once since, but I was still surprised that I caught her only a bout a quarter of the way into the first lap. She was going ok in the singletrack bits, but had no strength on the rises or open fire roads. I had put a more aggressive rear tyre on her bike, expecting some mud, but as it was the course was mud free. The tyre may have caused a bit more drag than she was used to.

In the second lap my rear brake lever suddenly came to the bar and I lost my rear brake completely.

So we dragged on for the minimum four hours, even slightly lurking a bit on the last climb to make sure we didn't have to go around again :)

Paul had another great race and took fifth in the vets once again.

Gorrick Brass Monkey rnd 1

Me and paul rode the Brass monkey round one yesterday at Deepcut. The biking is fantastic there! The race included huge drop ins and and sharp climbs. Paul is very strong at the moment, and has been all year. He caught me on the second lap and I stayed on until the end of that lap where I picked up a bottle and never saw him again!

paul was 16th and I was 24th.

Sunday ride

Jane was feeling a bit ill and so I nipped out for a quick ride around Epsom. A blip on the gps shows that I hit over 100kph on the return home across the flat! :)

Saturday ride

Jane has had a bit of a sore throat so we did a steady longish road ride to BG. They'd run out of teacakes so we had toast!! Very nice :)

Tuesday mtb

A gentle ride arond the north downs with roger today, a bit misty but some sunshine later. Very cold though :)

Xl Vuelta a Ibiza

We're not sure if we can get out to this one yet.

thetford rnd 1

My first time at Thetford for a couple of and years and Jane's for 3 or 4.

There had been a bit of rain the day before and a shower or two before the start,so the course was a bit sticky for the first two or three laps. It was a fantastic course, classic Brandon side of Theford. Lots of swoopy twists and turns in the singletrack and still big enough for 500 competitors.

I'd decided to ride with Jane and use the four hours as a long non stop training ride. ie to ride steady hard for six laps rather than bonkers for three and grovel for four :) The ladies went off two minutes before the men and it still took me over a lap to catch Jane! I was a bit nervous on the first lap and I'd forgotten how to ride a hardtail on this terrain, the last three seasons had been on the fullsus'. Once I'd remembered 'big gear standing up' started to get a bit more confident. By the time I'd caught Jane I'd passed at least three women riders and as there were only about seven ladies in her category I guessed she was either third or fourth. I didn't mention it because I didn't want to pressure her and the intention was a steady ride. At lap four Jane popped and slowed a lot, but more importantly she'd lost her skills in the technical bits. We eased right back for that lap and she had a couple of gels, a bar or two and some shot blocks. One of the ladies passed us on this lap. On the penultimate lap Jane regained her skills and 'maintenance of headway' was resumed :) a great book.

She caught the girl who'd passed us and sat with her for the the whole lap. Not long after we came through for the last lap Jane attacked and I held on for the rest of the lap :) Jane took a unexpected second place.



At the end we met Alan Parkyson who'd been riding well but cramped and dropped out of the top three and finished 11th. Paul had a great race, starting almost from the back he pulled back from 21st to fifth.

day 3

A nice steady ride around the coast and the lakes today :)

stage 2 - the wet one

Control de firma was inside today :)



It was rideable,just! But we had to walk :)



check point



the village people :)



Just as we head back, the sun arrives :)



A rare bike was h moment.

vuelta a formentera

Stage one

the vuelta formentera is a 3 day tour of Formentera. We'd originally thought that it was the same format as the vuelta a ibiza ie day one sportif, day two race and day three sportif. But, it's all sportif. So it's a chill out training ride for us, we took lots of pics.

me in the deep sand - arena profunda



the windmill - la molina.



Jane finds the firmer ground.



To the lighthouse - el faro

resfriadoooo -

Jane has a cold so it was just me and Paul today. We did a steady hard ride around the Downs taking in Holmbury, Blackheath and Pitch Hill.




The going was quite tough under wheel, so maintaining a steady pace was fairly hard.
We met Mick and a friend and later we met Gary, Jase, Tony and others near the windmill.

Still very little mud though.

vuelta a formentera

Bartolo and friend pre-riding some the course for next weeks race :)

Tuesday othg ride

Today was to be Dane Hill. As we left Betchworth, I noticed that someone was of the back so I eased a bit. Meanwhile at the front they'd pushed on,we closed the gap to the next group with Andy,Jack and Paul. At the T junction for Leigh we weren't sure which way they'd gone, not sure why they hadn't stopped! Andy's Garmin showed right, so we headed right. Of course they'd gone left :) Andy reckoned that he must have a different route installed, so we pressed on. His garmin indicated a left at Stan's Hill, but everyone said it couldn't be. At Charlwood we turned back to Stan's Hill :) Here we picked up Andy's route.



There have been mutterings recently about the rides starting off too fast. And some of the regulars have stopped turning up. The othg rides started out as a casual steady mid week ride to get the miles in. A similar thing happened a couple of years ago and almost killed off the othg. So some rules were laid down at the time: we were to ride steady until the last 10km or so to the tea stop and similar on the return. Hills could be attacked hard, but we had to wait at the top.Lately this hasn't been happening. This enabled anyone not so fit to get a good ride and if they were up for it, a bonkers bit at the end :) Even Gary went out with the early ride today! :-O It may be time to reinstate the rules.

We rode steady/hard and got to Dane Hill about 20 mins after the others. The return route was tough via Ardingly reservoir. At Colgate I noticed that Paul was off the the back, so I dropped back to see if he was ok and then moved up to the front group only to notice that Andy wasn't there. He wasn't in sight at Rusper I stopped in case he'd had a mechanical, but he'd missed the traffic at the roundabout and couldn't get back on. He was taking a packet so we bit and bitted across to the others.

A nice ride in Ibiza

I might try this one with Rachel next summer :)

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Sunday ride

Classic sundayriders Sunday ride today - Julie and Paul arrived at ten and the four of us rode over to meet Greg at Holmbury. We did lots of singletrack and climbs all around the Surrey Hills.It was a gorgeous day, 14'C at the zenith. It's this time of the year that we think 'this is the last one, this is the last one' and another fabulous day appears. The trails were beautifully dry and fast still - we could find mud if we wanted to :) Because we kept to the main trails we saw hundreds of cyclists,walkers and horse riders. There was also a couple of sportif type events on.

saturday sundayriders ride

Jane wanted to visit Barnes Green to find out why I loathe it so much, so we did the same route as the othg from Tuesday. Jane liked Barnes Green very much, because they serve veggie burgers and chips. But, today we had tea cakes :)

tuesday ride - othg

Today was Barnes Green :( But Cliff had a fabulous and longer route. The route back was the usual over the lumps past Warnham. A fastish ride today. Kay told Matthew off for pushing too hard :)

Tuesday mtb ride

I'd been meaning to ride the to Cripplegate off road for a while, so when roger mailed to see if I wanted to go out on the mtb I got the mountain bike out. There'd been heavy rain recently and it was raining hard up until 10 am when Roger arrived :)

Rather than being muddy, everywhere was splashy and slightly hard going. We made the tea stop in less than 2 hours. - 1.59.59 :)

Andy, Richard and Sabin were at the cafe, having arrived there after an abortive othg ride peppered with punctures and drop outs. they couldn't believe how filthy we were :)

tuesday - oyhg

Today was the ride to Westerham in Kent. Gary the Smithmeister had found a fabulous route through the lanes. As we set out from he cafe I discovered a rear puncture :( After we'd fixed it we set off at a leisurely pace, I notice that it was 1.45 and I had to be back for my first patient at 4.00.Then we took a wrong turn and I started to get a bit agitated that I wouldn't make it in time. So when we got to he A25 at Oxted I said that I'd head straight for Dorking. I got my head down and pushed, assuming that the others would turn off through the lanes. So we lined out on the A25 all the way back, not very nice but quicker. But..............as we turned into Pixham Lane Sabn said we'd made it for two o'clock and what time was my first patient. I said you mean three o'clock?

My gps is still an hour ahead from Ibiza......sorry guys...oops!

Tuesday othg ride

Today was Dane Hill




It was pretty quick on the way back.

Sunday ride

Today we rode around the downs on a steady ride, taking in a few new bits and enjoying the lovely dry trails. Even Ponds Lane was dry.

The ride was a 'fungi fest' The fly agarics were in abundance, with huge groups of them instead of the usual ones and twos. There were lots of others that we didn't know including this huuuuge one :)

tuesday ride - othg

Barnes Green this time a nice variation from Routemeister Smith

martes con el othg

Mojado! Pinchado! hoy llovió

Saturday and Sunday ride

Saturday - Jane came out with the club ride for the first time in many years. Which was lucky because no one knew the way to High Beeches, and she happened to have it logged in her brain from a previous ride.

Sunday we did a standard Sunday riders ride around the downs and had tea in Cranleigh. We bumped into Vik and Mark and the others at Peaslake on the way back.

Trans Ibiza

Trans Ibiza

Tuesday othg ride

Today was to be the Barnes Green ride, but we decided on Pulborough bird sanctuary. Simon was out today,he's very strong. Much stronger than Andy!!! So it was a hard ride :)

Saturday and Sunday ride

Today was a steady sundayriders ride with Paul. Around 44km off road.

Yesterday I went with the club to Worthing, a nice ride to the seaside. The first time I've done over a hundred miles( 170km ) for a long time :)

Wednesday - ride

Me and Paul did a couple of hours attempting to string together some of the trails we did with Vik and the others on Sunday. We found a new way to Westcott :)

tuesday ride - othg

The destination was to have been Westerham, but on the way we headed to Four Elms.

We averaged 32kmh on the way out, with Andy and Eric on the front we were hovering around 50kph on the flats.

Sundayriders by Vik

Today I joined vik and his friends for an mtb ride. There was me, Paul,vik,Mark,Linden,orla and Cory.

The Format was very much old style sundayrider rides where we would ride to certain places to ride scary bits, but keep up the pace in between. It was a great ride and i was shown some new and some new ways of joining known trails :)

Saturday swrc ride

Jane's away again, so I headed over to Cobham to meet up with the B plusses. We set out for Southwater, but no one was quite sure of the way. We ended up going over White Down and through Holmbury and an odd way to Warnham. It was a fairly until we hit Bonfire Hill, where a Bob and Jack attacked. I went around them to and pushed hard, at the top I was out of sight!! I didn't think I was going that well!

The return journey was through Horsham! I haven't ridden in traffic for a long time, it horrible trying to ride a group through very busy traffic. I think because I don't drive in this country, I'm not used to it. On the Tuesday rides we do anything to avoid town centres. We dropped into Broadbridge Heath from the north somehow. And then it was the usual way back via the Warnham station underpass and up over the hills to Rusper. We did the usual line out across to Newdigate, I jumped on the first little rise to shake off any of the sprinters ie Jack and Paul :) me, Bob and a couple of the younger guys got a gap. Me and Bob worked it, the other two couldn't come through. I came through just before the sign and Bob sat up to slow the other two and I jumped again for the sign :) Thanks Bob :)

My fitness is crawling back to me. Admittedly there was no Andy or Cliff today, but I know I would have been third if there had :)

wednesday mtb ride

paul, julie and greg turned up today!!! hurrah!

We did a gentle ride around epsom, Paul had a new bike, julie was very strong and greg kept a lookout at the rear :)

Tuesday ride - othg

today was meant to be the trip to Dane Hill, but because of the rain we headed to a new place in Kirdford that someone had heard of. When we got there it was more of a village shop that does coffee. So, no one was particularly happy.

It was a tough ride, no real hills but lots of long drags and lining out on the flats.

Sundayriders Sunday ride

Today was a short one again. We were going to visit Greg in Wimbledon and had to back for the train. We rode the small circuit with Stan's hill, we always hit this hill as hard as we can. Today we went under 5 mins! 4'56" Suddenly, I'm able to get the pedals around and get higher heart rates again.

Recap

After a week of riding in Ibiza I returned to find that the spell of fine weather in the uk had broken. Tuesday was my first wet ride for an age. I was shivering with the cold and wet after the tea stop for a few minutes before the first climb warmed me up. It's been so warm this year that I'd forgotten what it was like to be cold. It always surprises me :)



Today me and Jane did a short sharp set of hills for an hour and a bit.

Saturday ride

Jane is in Ibiza, so I decided to go out with the club. Because of the hay fever I'm not fit enough for the Alphas, so I went with the B+ guys. It was good to see everyone again. The B+ was: me, Ken Dolman, Paul Gadd, Jack, Toby, Gary Smith, Keith a Scots guy who is working in the area and fancied a ride, and I think, a Dave :)

I met them at Bookham, so it's a good ten miles to the start, and we set off over to Boxhill to meet Gary. If I'd known I'd have stayed in bed an extra hour...doh :) I thought that we were heading for Godstone but, it had been changed to Four Elms

. Four Elms has become the new favourite for the time being :) It's a relatively flat ride with lots of gentle rises. The way back is the same as me and Jane did a couple of Sundays ago, featuring the nice off road sections :) Me and Paul Gadd pushed it a bit here daring each other to go faster and faster in the loose gravel and giggling with fear and anticipation of gravel rash hehehe. We regrouped and wended our way through the lanes past Redhill Aerodrome to South Park, where Jack started to push it a bit. It often kicks off at this part of the ride, so this was the selection today - Me, Jack, Paul, Keith and Ken. Jack then kicked hard up Flanchford road, a 1km long steady drag. (My chest was feeling a lot better today, which sort of showed that my legs were'nt up to much :)) I pulled everyone back to him as he slowed, at the top there is a short sharp potholed descent onto Trumpets Hill a steady rolling descent of a couple of km's. Jack eased on the potholed descent and I went past and let it go. I looked back and I was 200 metres up, so I put my head down and pushed. Another look and I could see that Paul had jumped clear and was closing. I eased a little to let him get on to work together. By work together I mean that after a minutes rest, Paul came through and I hung onto the back for dear life :) I could see Ken was trying to get on the back and he almost bridged as we got to the blind right hand bend at Wortham Lane, but of course there was a car coming down the hill :) That threw us wide and braking hard I was stuck in a big gear for the hill, it took everything for me to catch Paul going up there and Ken couldn't get across. At Betchworth we sat up and waited. Great fun :)

A good 120km on the bike.

Tuesday othg ride

Barnes Green High Street 1955.

Today's ride was to the dreary Barnes Green tea stop, but Gary choose a much longer and very enjoyable route to get there. We had started out a little late waiting for everyone to arrive, as everyone was edging their bets against whether we would get any rain :) As it was we had a few spots and nothing more. Because of the late start and the longer route we didn't arrive at Barnes Green until one o'clock. I had to be back for a three o'clock patient.I grabbed a quick coffee and teacakes and set out alone leaving the others to enjoy their lunch. It's a little bit lumpy and at one point I have a hike a bike section through the railway underpass, so I was amazed to average 30kph on the way home.

Sundayriders Sunday ride

Today we did a nice steady road ride to Four Elms near Westerham in Kent. I always like to get back on the road this time of year because the countryside is so beautiful. While at the moment the off road is very dry, it's a little bit claustrophobic and dark because of the very dense canopy of trees this time of year. We followed a route on the gps that I'd recorded from one of the Tuesday rides. It was the flattest route in the area gently rolling through open farm land of corn and maize, just needed a few sunflowers to add a bit of yellow to the forty shades of green :)

The gleaning 2

Today we did a little ride around Epsom because I had a neighbourhood commitee meeting about the Eden Project 'Big Lunch' next weekend.

On the way back we saw some cherry trees in the cricket ground......mmm :)

Saturday and Sunday ride

After a fortnight off the bike with hay fever and a bad cold, we decided on a steady ride. On Saturday we rode over to Redhill Aerodrome where they recently opened a nice café I hadn't realised how close we would be to the planes. Good coffee, nice teacakes and aeroplanes landing and taking off in front of us. Jane liked this café very much.





Sunday was a gentle ride out over Leith and Holmbury Hill, where we met Greg. The trails were empty today, we think because people were staying in to watch soccer. Or, maybe they'd done an early ride? We did notice a few more ladies on the trails today.

Paul had a slight off on the horrible off-camber rooted trail that we discovered a little while ago. I hate that trail :)

It was soooo dry and dusty, the trails are bone dry and hard.So, I'm aching all over and I didn't even fall off :) Meanwhile, Surrey is burning up and turning brown.

Extreme

It was pretty hot, mid twenties at the start. I didn't feel too good today, a bit tired from the travelling and a bit drained from the excitement of going on holiday :) So I didn't really feel like racing at all :(

We lined up for the traditional once around the perimeter of el campo de futbol. The start was fast and furious into the bends of the fake grass running track, in fact so fast that we caught the back of the group! lol

Onto the tarmac hill in the main street of Sant Josep and I just don't feel good. I shouldn't be moaning, I love this race and racing in Ibiza. So I sit up and wait for Jane to come through. She comes through very fast and I'm having trouble hanging on to her wheel. On the downhill sections I'm ok, but she comes past on the flats and ups :) So I decide to hang on in case I start to feel better.



At about 10km we hit the first climb, this was a very steep section of just over 1km long and 15 mins hike-a-bike. I felt ok doing this, I'd had a lot of practice in Italy a few weeks ago :) A fast steep gravel fire road followed before we hit the next climb of Serra Grossa. A grind of 3.5 km . Jane likes this climb and we pass a few people on this one. A nice rocky technical descent took us to the climb of Sa Capalleta a 4km grind with the checkpoint I grabbed three big cups of coke here and Jane set of almost immediately. I had to chase hard to catch her on the descent. Just as I caught her the trail turned sharp left with a tricky drop in on rocks,on of the marshals here started shouting 'Hey Raymond and Jane' and the others joined in. I couldn't work out who it was. Meanwhile Jane had ridden the drop and was getting away. (last year she walked this section) I was now beginning to feel quite perky from the coke and the next long rocky twisting descent was fabulous.



On a flat section of singletrack one of the older guys from Kandani came hurtling through. I started to think that I want to chase. I said to Jane that if he was still in sight on the next climb I would attack, because I knew he was in my category. The next check point is at Es Cubells and is the lowest point of the race. We have to sign in on this one. The next 10km is full of short sharp ups before we hit the Puig den Serra. This is the hill that everyone fears and has been the topic of conversation on FB for ages :)



It's a concrete wall it's 22/32 all the way. Jane started to feel the heat on this climb and began to suffer a bit. I strangely enough had started to feel much better, the coke at the check point had done wonders. We passed the guy from Kandani here and he chased(if it's possible to chase at 3kmh), but blew spectacularly and had to walk. No one else was riding except me and Jane. Jane was reeling a bit, the mountain was in full sun and the heat being reflected back from the ground was incredible. I had picked up a bottle of plain water for this part of the course and poured some down my back and passed it to Jane. At the top I said to Jane that I would push on to put some time into Antonio. I remember this descent from last year, it's superb. Over the next few kms I pass a lot of very tired people. At the bottom of the last climb I grab a couple of glasses of coke and put a bidon of aqualia in my back pocket. Not because I needed it,but because I wanted the bidon as a souvenir :) I wasn't thinking straight because I should have emptied it first.....doh! I set off up the final climb which was good middle ring fire road spin.On the second hairpin I could see Jane was approaching the check point. Near the top I pass a guy in red and white kit that I'd been admiring it at the start. I said hi as I passed him and set off into the very technical descent. This route off Sa Talia had been used for a downhill race the previous Sunday and was cut up, loose and an covered dust. I dropped into the very steep entry point sliding all over the place on the loose marbles of rock, scattering people who were sensibly walking this section. At one point I had to dismount to climb down a two metre step and then it was super fast big ring - chain all the way to the right - tarmac into the campo de futbol.



I was second master vet and twelfth vet. Jane was first veteran lady and third overall. The guy who is third in the picture turned out to be the guy in red and white who I'd passed at the top.

the gleaning

el último dia - the gleaning

Saturday we rode over to the road climb of Cala San Vincens. We time the climb from the road bridge where it starts to steepen, there's actually another 3km of very gentle climbing before this but we don't count that as climbing :) Today we did the 4.5 km's in 17'.32" quite quick for me because I always try to ride this one sitting down.





On the way back we did the descent of Burnt tree climb (Sa Talaia de Furnas) Where the mighty Dinsdale hurt her knee this time last year. After, we did some singletrack that Art had showed us on Wednesday and finished at Art's to pick some of his apricots (Albaricoques) . There were tons of them!




Jane filled her pockets and camelback

Ibiza Extreme

Raymond dice:

Two podiums for the Sunday Riders yesterday at the Ibiza Extreme. Juanita third overall and first in the over 40's. And me second, in the over 50's. A fabulous rocky, hilly course made harder by 35C plus temperatures.

Cycle Polo

Raymond dice:

I might have to get a fixie! I played cycle polo on Saturday, great fun ;)

Saturday, Sunday, Monday ride

This weekend was the bank holiday, so we had three days to ride and prefer for the Ibiza Extreme next weekend.

Saturday was a quick mtb road ride over the local hills, because it was going to rain.

Sunday was a steady 4 hours on the mtb.

Monday was a slightly quicker steady ride of two and a half hours.

Tuesday othg ride

No Andy today, so it wasn't going to be bonkers :) We were going to (something elms),I'd never been to this cafe before. It was out toward Westerham, but avoiding every hill!

It was a nice steady ride. Four of the guys were quite happy to knock lumps off each other on the front, so I sat in and let them. :) It was feeling quite ok today just rolling along, some of the others we puffing a bit.

It was a lovely sunny day around 20' and we sat outside for coffee and teacakes. We sat too long and I had to be back for 3pm. The route back was a Gary Smith special.We took a couple of fantastic farm tracks, one of them covered in gravel. Me and one of the guys who's a ex cyclo-crosser hit it hard. I got behind him and he was flying! I've ridden gravel hard on the mountain bike with knobblies, but on road bike slicks with 100psi it was very interesting. The bike sort of floats and with no side knobs moves from side to side with each pedal turn. And once you smooth out the pedalling it steadies and and you can apply the power. It's one of those things that you learn in about five seconds or you fall off!:) As soon as I knew where I was, I lifted the pace because I needed to get back. I time trialled the next eight miles. I didn't really look back. I could hear Chris behind me,but no one came through so I just kept my head down. At the sprint for the Dorking sign there was only me and Chris left. I made it home with 15 mins to spare.

I can feel some fitness on these beautiful warm days.