Last Long Ride

Got up at 6:30 and was out of the door by 7:15 for my last long ride before the Etape. I wasn't sure how far or where I was going but I headed towards Kingston. Ed had decided that I was going too early (and I don't blame him) so I was on my own.

I followed my usual route to the Surrey hills and was going along at a decent speed, listening to podcasts and enjoying myself. I got to Ranmore Common but instead of heading for Box Hill, I went down to Dorking and then back down the A25 towards Guildford. Then it was up the hill on Coombe Lane and back to the top of Staple Hill.


Then on to Box Hill (see above), stop for water and cake and then home. I extended the route by going to Epsom Racecourse (an extra hill) and then doing a bit more in Richmond Park before getting home with 87.3 miles on the clock.

My body held up pretty well. My knee and elbow were a little sore still but nothing too bad. I have hurt my chest. I think I've strained a muscle between my ribs on the right hand side. It started hurting the day after Dartmoor so I imagine its crash related. It hurts when I cough or take a really deep breath in when I get out of the saddle. Fingers crossed its healed in 2 weeks time.

During the ride, my cycle computer went dim a few times. As soon as I got home, it went completely. Thankfully, I had a spare battery so its back up and running again but I will get another spare for France. You never know. My bike is also creaking again. Very annoying.

Stats
Time: 5:10:01
Distance: 87.3 miles
Average: 16.9 mph
Ascent: 6,800
Nutrition: High5 Extreme (1 bottle), ZipVit (1 bottle), Water (1 bottle), Clif Bar (1), Bread Pudding (1 yum yum). I got to Box Hill having eaten only one bar so instead of eating more I bought a cake. Its all sugar!!!

Tougher than a Ninja

As the temperatures have been going up, I've found that my sweaty head is giving me grief. I found in Dartmoor I was having to take my glasses off to use my gloves to wipe the sweat from my eyes. My eyes often stung as sweat dripped into them.

So I looked for a solution. I found this headband but it wasn't available in the UK and expensive from the States. I read on forums that a lot of people use Buffs so I got myself a Coolmax Buff Headband. It seems odd to wear something else to keep cool but people say it works. The main thing is that it draws the sweat away so it won't go in my eyes. I've also heard that if you soak it in water it can keep you cool for ages.

Its a shame I look like a dick.

The final leg

So that's it. All my events done. That's eleven this year with the ultimate goal still to do. In 20 days I shall be on my bike somewhere along the route. Its all suddenly got very real.

The aims of the next three weeks are:

• Stay healthy
• Rest
• Keep the legs turning over but not too many miles
• Sleep lots
• Keep weight stable or even lose weight
• Finalise trip details

I have three weeks to keep active and stay focused without doing anything too much. Most studies say that you can't really improve your fitness in the last two or three weeks. Resting or reducing the level of exercise will actually allow your body to adapt to all the work its been put through. Keep the intensity, reduce the distance is the mantra.

After reading Karen's excellent blog, I'm glad its not just me who is starting to go a little nuts. The combination of excitement, nerves, nothing to focus on other than the main event and less than 20 days to go is starting to get to me. I never enjoyed tapering when doing marathons and I think this is going to be worse.

Still, I do have work to do to keep me on track and a lot of details to sort out for the journey down there. I'll be sad when its all over.

Chute, Auger, Beef-it or Biff

auger - to involuntarily take samples of the local geology, usually with one's face, during a crash.
beef it - to fall or crash.
biff - a crash "I biffed and then wiped away the blood."
chute - French for fall
wipeout - finish riding early

Yes, after 13 months on the bike, I finally lost my battle with gravity and came off at the Dartmoor Classic.

Back to Saturday and I left London around 9, picked up Ed and drove the 220 miles to Moretonehampstead in Devon where my Dad lives. I wanted to watch the rugby with him so it was straight off to the pub. Not a great result but it was nice watching it with my Dad. It was then off to register which didn't take long.

Early to bed and then up at 5:30 for breakfast and a drive to the start in Kingsteignton. Ed and I had discussed the possibility of getting a gold. It was sub 6:35 for the 104 miles to get a gold and we thought we could average the 15.9 mph even with the 3,300 meters of ascent. We started well averaging over 20 mph for the first 7 miles. We were in a largish group what were fast but very aggressive. Coming down a hill it was clear they were risk takers as they came on the outside of us on the wrong side of the road approaching a bend as they wanted to go faster.

Minutes later we went from a down hill to a small uphill. Everyone out the saddle to make it over the hill without loosing speed. Suddenly I saw a very slow rider right in front of me. I quickly looked to my right to move out but I was boxed in. I shouted but no one moved. The next thing I know I clip the slow rider and I'm down followed by another rider on top of me. It all happened so quickly. We all get up and check ourselves. I have a hole in my knee and elbow but nothing seems broken. The slow bloke on the bike is fine and the guy who fell on me is also fine. His front wheel is bent but usable and my left break lever is really bent. I count my chickens knowing it could have been worse.

I was very wobbly and slow for a while. My descending was also slow and nervy and once the adrenaline wore off, my knee and elbow really hurt. Ed was a star and stayed with me. We took it slow for a while but then I got a bit quicker. Gold was gone so silver would be great and bronze ok. No medal would be very annoying.

We were going ok until Ed had his event mechanical and punctured. It didn't take long and we were back doing 20 on the flat. I had a real low after about 60 miles as it was raining again (forecast was for sun, we had no sun all day) and I was sore. Also, last week's 150 miler was definitely in my legs and the climb out of Tavistick to Prince Town felt long.

A short stop in the feed stop and then I knew it wasn't too hilly before passing my Dad's house. As we were late, he'd been waiting outside his house for hours. I was very pleased to see him and enjoyed his flapjack. He had been very worried after seeing an air ambulance fly over.

Spirits lifted, it was up the final climb before a 3 mile down hill and a 10 mile blast on the flat. Ed was storming along at 27 on the flat and I was hanging onto his wheel for dear life. It was real fun flashing past people but the finish line was very welcome.

A huge thanks to the St. Johns ambulance who washed out my knee. I was there first business of the day. Thanks to the mechanics who tweaked the front changer as the lever was bent and not changing well. Thanks also to the organisers for a great ride, superb marshals and a lovely piece of granite as a memento. Oh and we got bronze. No crash would have meant silver. Gold was just too much after the Dave Lloyd. Next Year.

Stats
Distance: 105 miles (169 kms)
Ride Time: 6:38
Total Time: 7:29
Award: Bronze
Max Speed: 46.6 mph
Ascent: 10,158 feet (3,100 meters)
Average Cadence: 78
Nutrition: High5 4:1 (4 bottles), Torq (1 bottle), Nuun tablets (2), Gels (2), Ride Shots (2 packs), Viper Bar (1) and Flapjack (1).
Calories Used: 5,454 (MapMyRide estimate)

More Dave Lloyd thoughts

Comments
Thanks for all the nice comments on the DLMC. Its nice to know so many read my blog and are interested in my rides.

Bwlch y Groes
Thanks for the info Data. 11 chevrons in 2.2 kms. That is impressive. Good knowledge.

Pain
The most pleasing thing about the day was my new ride position. My knee and thigh pain was greatly reduce. So much so that I forgot about it for long periods. Also, my worries about the shoes were unfounded. They were very comfy.

Feed stops
I was surprised just how long I had been stopped. There were four feeds stops and I must have been at each for over 10 minutes as I stationary for 52 minutes in total. That is a little annoying as I had intended to be quicker than that.

Finish Position
I'm dead chuffed with 71st place. That's top 37% out of the 188 finishers and top 19% out of the 359 entrants.

Standard
Yep, I did get a silver standard. Very pleased with that.

Etape
I'm trying not to be over confident but as a couple of comments said, I think this ride was sort of harder than the Etape. We got to 92 miles on Sunday in around 6 hours 15 minutes which is the equivalent of the base of Ventoux. It was hillier than the Etape's first 92 miles and we were well inside the Etape cut-off. So I guess I'm now thinking more about how well I can do in France rather than if I can beat the broom wagon.

Having said all that, a mechanical or a couple of punctures and its all in the balance. There is also the possibility of 40 degree heat which I didn't have in Wales. That could change everything.

Simon
No, I don't think he's forgive me yet :-)

Dave Lloyd Mega Challenge

Ed arrived at my house on Saturday at 12 and something was different. He had a new Pinarello Price, MOst carbon integrated bars and Di2 electronic Dura Ace groupset. To say I went a dark shade of green would be putting it mildly. I don't care about the group set but the Pinarello fame is beautiful. It took me a couple of hours to stop being so jealous.

We set off to Wales at lunchtime and apart from a 2 hour traffic jam on the M40 (what fun), it was an ok journey. We found the Travelodge, checked in, dumped our bags and bikes and went to find SimonO in a local pub. We had lots of cycle chat, some ok food and compared notes on leg shaving techniques (yes, I have done mine).

We were up on Sunday morning at 4:30 and feeling rough. As it was so early and a Travelodge, we had to settle of cold food and no porridge. I had oat cakes, jam, malt loaf and weak coffee and Ed had malt loaf and cold rice pudding (see picture). It wasn't ideal. We got to the start at 5:30, registered and after Ed faffed around for a while, we met SimonO and set off at 6:30.

The first 20 miles were hell. I couldn't get in my stride and was continually fighting to stay with Ed and Simon. They always seemed to be 200 yards ahead. I told Ed to go on without me but he said no, it was fine. But I knew if I didn't get any better, it would be a very long day.

The road was up and down from the word go. Unlike the Fred, there weren't obvious hills like Newlands or Kirkstone but it was certainly going up. There was a great downhill at around 25km with a big horse-shoe decent around a valley where we must have been above 40mph for a long time. This did lift my spirits a bit. Then, a while later we ended up in a group of about 20 riders and formed a really quick train. I get such a buzz out of this and I did start to have a bit of fun.

The large group of riders came to a town and it appeared that a lot of them had done the ride last year. This made them question a turning in the town and they decided to follow last years route and ignore the sign. We blindly followed them but I had my doubts as we crossed a roundabout with no signs. A few of us decided to turn back and I thought Ed and Simon were with me. Ed was behind me but after a mile we realised Simon wasn't. We presumed he had gone on with the main group but it turned out later he had followed but couldn't bridge the gap to rejoin us. He was pissed that we didn't wait and rightly so but we just didn't think he was behind us. We did most of the 150 miles alone and is still not a happy bunny. Sorry Simon.

Miles 50 to 80 did pass quite quickly. I switched my computer display away from distance so I wouldn't obsess about it which helped. I didn't find the scenery all that great but maybe that was the drizzle. In spite of all the forecasts of a dry day, it rained on and off with some heavy spells and soaked everyone. The highlight of this section was Ed and I being joined by two other riders. We did bit-and-bit for about 10 miles at a cracking pace. He did do it backwards with the most guilty person sprinting to the front to take their turn. I really loved being on the front doing 28 mph on the flat. Superb.

Miles 80 to 100 were uneventful and we were surprised we had climbed over 8,000 feet as we got to feed station 3. We were warned of a big hill around the corner so had a couple of sandwiches and some soup to warm us up.

It was a big hill. Bwlch y Groes is the highest pass in Wales at nearly 2,000 ft and it is a monster. Its about 12km long but I think that hard but is no more than half that. Its main problem is that you can see it all in front of you. It just seems to go on and on. Its mostly over 15% with a flatter section in the middle and then it ramps up to over 20% for a long time at the end. Ed went off as usual and I thought I saw him go over the top which was depressing as I was only half way up. However, as I got a bit further, there he was, having a rest. I couldn't help feeling a bit pleased that he is human after all. I stopped as well for a couple of minutes and then went again. I tried to get all the way up without stopping but it was so brutal. I stopped once more before making it over the top. Out of the 40 riders around us, only 2 made it all the way up in one go and they were supremely fit. I know SimonO doesn't agree but I think its harder than Hardknott because its so long.

One more big hill and then another feed stop at 130 miles. There was still 20 miles to go and I knew we had the Stingers still to do. These were lots of small climbs that really broke up your pace and were demoralising when you are so tired. I eventually saw the 5 miles to go sign and it was mostly down hill to Ruthin. I was so happy to be able to stop cycling and chuffed at 150 miles on the clock.

Stats
Distance: 150 miles (241 kms)
Ride Time: 9:45:02
Total Time: 10:37:17
Max Speed: 50.1 mph
Ascent: 16,594 feet (5,057 meters)
Average Cadence: 76
Average Heart Rate: 148
Max Heart Rate: 178
My placing: 71st
Signed up for race: 359
Finishers: 188
First place: 8:52:53
Last finisher: 14:27:19
Nutrition: High5 4:1 (5 bottles), Torq (1 bottle), Nuun tablets (2), Gels (2), Ride Shots (2 packs), Clif Blocks (1 pack), Clif Bar (1), Viper Bar (1), Ham Sandwich (1) and Tuna Sandwich (1).
Calories Used: 7,500 (MapMyRide estimate)

Pre Race Report

Later today, I shall be driving the 220 miles from my house to Ruthin in Wales for the Dave Lloyd Mega Challenge. It is 150 miles with over 5,000 metres of climbing around the beautiful hills of North Wales.






We are staying on Saturday night in a Travel Lodge and then its up early for the 6am start and 150 grueling miles. Then its back in the car for the long journey home. Red Bull and espressos needed.

I'm not looking forward to it that much. I'm not feeling great at the moment. The training has been going ok but the diet is again terrible. I just can't do it. And 150 miles seems such a long way.

I better get packing. The weather report is good at the moment but I better plan for all eventualities.