gps of the Sunday ride

I've uploaded yesterday's ride to Mapmytracks click here

Not sure how useful it is yet, but you can follow the course and speed it up.

Sundayriders - Sunday ride

The long dry spell came to an end today, but only for a little bit :) A band of rain passed across the south east this morning - a present from Wales of course :) Luckily they kept most of it and we had just an hours worth before we left. This does mean that the warmer westerly's have returned and summer is on it's way....hurrah!

Both the Mighty Dinsdale and Paul turned up today, so it was a proper Sundayriders Sunday ride. We decided on a steady fastish ride, not pushing but not easy :) As we have the Rally di Romagna next week I don't want to do too much. I was also trying out the tyres I'm going to be racing on. I have moved to Larsen TT's after using Hutchinson Python's for these races for the past few years. Hutchinson have changed their catalogue and dropped the Python. There are still a few about but I thought I'd switch now. Both of these tyres are extremely popular on the continent for endurance xc racing, in fact if they're not on one they're on the other :)

So, I decided on one of our 'Cape epic' routes, one of a collection of all weather routes we used to train for the Cape Epic. Out across the Roughs, where the mighty Dinsdale was half-wheeling me most of the way up the fire road until a little bit later when a rabbit kitten threw itself under our wheels!!!! I'm sure they do it on purpose, like we did as children playing 'chicken' in front of the colliery trains up north :)
Rad Lane, almost unrideable some weeks ago was easy today, and only a couple of wet patches up to the windmill at Ewhurst. Almost everything was bone dry still. The rough climb up to St Martha's church was the driest I'd ever seen it, I rode the technical bits out of the saddle! pro stylee :) It was dry enough to big ring it up Water Lane.

We cut across the top of the North Downs way, after a bit of a dig up here, to check on the progress of the bluebells. They need one more week and we will miss them because of Italy. The mighty D wanted to collect some wild garlic, so we headed toward the vineyard. Jane's favourite trail is near here so we had to do it. She was flying! Me and Paul doing our very best to stay with her, I had to take a couple of silly lines to close the gap she kept opening :) At the stepping stones the garlic leaves had gone over a bit and were starting to flower.



All about us the cowslips had suddenly appeared since midweek and were in abundance. Folklore says that fairies hide their gold beneath them. Also Ariel from the Tempest likes to lie in them -


Where the bee sucks, there suck I.
In a cowslip's bell I lie.
There I couch when owl's do cry
On the bat's back I do fly after summer merrily'.....

Wednesday - ride

Today instead of my intended Epsom Loop leg tester, I went for a road ride with my neighbour Mathew(sp?) He's been back on the bike for a while now after some time off doing family stuff. I'd noticed that he was beginning to get the sucked in look of a cyclist lately and that he'd bought a new bike - See the paparazzi style over the fence spy shot above :)


We did one of our local hilly routes up over Leith and Holmbury. I think that I was let off a hard ride today because Mathew had been out with the othg yesterday and he and Andy had been knocking lumps out of each other on the hills all the way to Dane Hill :) He certainly climbs very well.

40km in 1.38 - 850m of upness

Tuesday mtb

No Roger today and no othg

I felt that I needed to stretch my legs on the mtb, so I rode to Cripplegate lake in Southwater and back alone. I like this ride for getting fit, because it's quite novel. The middle section is 37 ish km on the Downs Link a disused railway line and is virtually flat (there is a kick where it goes over a closed tunnel) So I can sit and pedal virtually non stop for almost 2 hours. At either end of this ride are a couple of stiff climbs to get over the North Downs.

83km in 3.52

A good (almost) four hours on the bike. :)

vuelta a Ibiza - 2

Day 2
San Antonio - Sant Augusti

Another sunny day :)

The first 6 km was neutralised from the centre of San Antoni to San Augusti, I had to pee and so just as I started so did the race and I was left behind. It took a good ten minutes and all of the worst lines on the climb for me to get back to Jane. Luckily for me she was being held up on the climb by slower riders. This was a great climb and a new way up to Serra Grossa? Last year in the Extrem we'd come up the other side which is a hard hike-a-bike section. Next was a mad loose descent with a few sand traps to keep you alert. The next climb was the climb of Sa Capalleta, we'd done this one a couple of times before. Last year in stage one and also in the extrem. Here we caught up with Marí Elena one of the strong girls from CC Santa Eulalia, she had dropped like a stone on the last descent - but was struggling on this technical climb. Jane gained easily, but couldn't get past on the narrow line available. The inevitable happened and Marí slipped and ended up sideways across the trail. There was nowhere to go so Jane dabbed. Once past we quickly grabbed a coke at the avituallamente at the top and pushed on.

Puig den Serra - Suddenly there was a queue in the singletrack and as we round the trees I remember the water crossing from last year. At three metres across it was a brown serous liquid with a few tennis ball sized stepping stones dotted across. Most were wading, but Jane lifted her bike and skipped across every stone while everyone just stared!!. I thought I'd try the same, but slipped off the first stone up to mid calf in the gloop...doh! On the climb out I complemented Jane on her sure footedness. She said 'Well I didn't want to mess up my new shoes!!' :)




We now began to recognise the route again and that the next avituallamente was close. I was out of fluids now, so needed to fill up. We pushed hard down the road section into town and rounded the corner only to see ....no check point! Panic!!! But, just out of town there it was on the clifftop. Buena vista. One of the helpers told Jane that she was lying in second place. We began the gradual climb to the very ungradual climb of Puig d'en Serra. A couple of small technical climbs took us to where we caught up with Keith in last year's extreme. At the foot of the climb we turned left onto the broken asphalt. I made the mistake of looking up and heard myself groan involuntarily. It's granny time!!
Heads down, chains all the way to the left we start the grind. At first we start to pull in the riders still on their bikes, and then as it steepens more we pass riders walking. At the top Bartolo shouted 'animo' as we crested and dropped down the loose rocky descent. At the bottom we came across the short sharp carry under the chain from last year. Since then who ever had put up the chain last had decided it wasn't enough and had replaced it with a fence! We hauled the bikes over and pushed on with the last big climb now in sight - Sa Atalaia. I must have looked bad here because one of the roaming marshalls pulled alongside and offered me a gel :) I declined but said 'darlo a mi novia' and he gave it to Jane. As we approached the foot of the next climb Jane shouted ' la meta!' , and just up the road was the finish! We thought that we had one more climb. We passed through and they told Jane she was third - the others had been mistaken.

la Vuelta a Ibiza

vuelta a ibiza 2010

This year the routes of the first two days were quite different to last year. The final day was very similar to the last time.

day 1
Eivissa town - Santa Gertrudis

We knew quite a lot of this route, because at Christmas we'd done a version of it with Bartolo. The profile for this route was more or less one long climb and then a series of gradually diminishing lumps to the end.
The meet up for the start in Eivissa is great fun, full of bright colours and loud excited chatter. At the control de firma Where we all have to sign on ceremoniously, there's lots of back slapping and posing for photos. We meet up with the guys from Kandani/ Santa Eulalia CC - David, Sergio, Juan Marí, Pasqui, Fátima and others we don't know. They are all wearing the new club kit for the first time, me gusta mucho and I must get one :) We then spot Jo from the Mastergym Team, and go to say hello. We met Jo last year at the Extrem, she'd ridden with Julie for a while on the course. She's looking fit this year and says that she's been going well and enjoying in the duatló series on the island. In Ibiza the duatló is run - bike -run off road.
At the start there are more fireworks than usual and we slowly set off through clouds of smoke into the streets of Eivissa, enjoying the fiesta like atmosphere of people cheering and waving. Once into the outskirts the riders who'd got a bit excited at the start and had overcooked it, started to drop back a little bit. And the lead car turned off we were in the front group, not far behind Fátima. The climb was mostly wide tracks with little plunges into wooded singletrack but generally these were short lived and the theme was up. Toward the top of the climb the trail became much more broken up and technical and as we crested I could see that the descent was pretty technical but wide. A few people seemed to fluff the first drop off and 20 metres ahead I could see that Fátima was scooting. I got ready to dismount behind Jane, but she just rode straight off it!! Whoa :) The rest of the descent was fast and rocky and Jane was riding very well. Only baulking a bit on the left hand off- camber bends :)
We all dropped into San Rafel together where the avituallamiente was on the church cobbles. We grabbed some coke and went to sent off but couldn't find the way out. It was only then that we found out that we were to regroup before setting off again....odd! We stood around and chatted for half an hour or so before setting off behind the jeep out of San Rafel. The stop had made our legs a bit heavy so we took it easy to with the idea to save our legs for tomorrow. This area has some great trails that we know already, but nearing the end I said to a guy we'd caught 'cuanta falta' and he said 'menos de un kilometro' and at that point we hit some fantastic singletrack through the trees and we pushed hard and fast through it to' la meta' at the campo de futbol in Santa Gertrudis. The campo was filled with long bench tables and a stage for the post ride feast and the enterntainment. Art and Juan Ferrer were helping out in the kitchens so we said hello to them. Juan said he was going to race the next day. We sat and chatted and ate for an hour or so and got sun burned :)

Saturday - rest day

No riding this weekend, we're in Wales for a bit of hiking. Today we had to go to Cardiff to buy the lco some new running shoes. So we did a quick 5km run through Bute park in Cardiff.

wednesday ride - epsom loop

Often this time of the year as I begin to get fit, I test myself on the 'Epsom loop'- a lumpy 18.5km circuit near home.

It hasn't rained for a good week or so and the trails are pretty dry, even bumpy in places. Jane tested herself on this loop last week and managed a very good 56 minutes for the conditions. Since then the trails have dried a lot and today I managed 52.45, no doubt Jane will attempt to smash that if the dry weather stays :)

The gauntlet has been thrown :)

tuesday ride - othg

Barnes Green ......again!!

I was going to ride the mtb with roger today, but he called to say his legs were ok but his backside wasn't. He'd got a bit chafed on Saturday's ride. :)

So, I got the road bike out to join the othg. I wasn't sure if my legs would be ok after the weekend's riding and they were a bit sore on the ride over to Betchworth to meet up.

Today was quick from the start for some reason..... Must be the sunshine :) We hammered down Weare Street which was giggly scary as the road surface is really broken up and pot holed. We eased a bit after this because some people were getting a bit grumpy about the pace. The speed would then gradually increase and someone would get grumpy. This kept happening until about 5km from the tea stop, when it went a bit bonkers on the series of rises before the tea stop sprint :)I felt strangely comfortable in the line, so I moved out and up. I don't usually sprint but I thought I'd just follow. It was slightly uphill and everyone started to fade except me!! lol.

At the stop Eric turned a bit late, he missed the start today. He'd crashed his mtb on Saturday and had a wicked scab and bruising on his knee.

After teas it was fairly steady until Warnham. At Warnham we have to dismount and walk through the Station underpass. Andy attacked on the hills here, me, Andy E and Clive followed. He then attacked very hard and we gapped the other two. I was surprised how easily I could stay with Andy today. I don't think he is going as well as usual, but we gapped Andy E and he usually stays with us. So I think I'm getting stronger :) The burn up from Rusper was fun I managed to get away with Alan but he didn't have the legs today and I managed third in the sprint.

Sunday Ride

My legs were sore today. Me,Paul and Jane rode out to meet up with Greg at Holmbury. We hung around Holmbury riding the singletrack hooligan style :) It was a bit of a sprint session - sprinting the singletrack and then pottering to the next. A good fifty km on the bike.

Saturday Ride

I was feeling desperate for a long ride, I'm now super-panicky about the Italian race being so close.

We decided to ride to Pulborough Bird sanctuary a good four hours off road and a two hour return on the road. Roger decided to join us... hurrah! It was deliciously sunny and probably the best day of the year so far.....Jane wore short and got sunburnt!! That's on top of her Ibiza tan lol.

snazzykit

I have ordered the culotes to match :)

Jane was third once again!! I of course was 'un gregario' as usual.