Cycling and coffee are synonymous, so the creation of the virtual Cafe Network is truly inspired. Accessible and updated via a Facebook community, this network runs on Google maps and even has its own app!
I used it for the first time in planning where to stop on last weekend's Rapha 100 and would recommend it to any cyclist looking for a cycling friendly cafe. Just make sure you feedback you appreciation to both the cafe and the Cafe Network, and if you come across a cafe not yet published, make sure you recommend it via the Facebook page .. it's a revelation!
On the 23rd July there is, so I have learned this week, the Rapha Women's 100. This event has been run since 2013, coincidentally when I returned to cycling, to inspire women around the world to come together to ride 100 km all on the same day. Why mention this? Well, this weekend, I with 3 cycle club friends, rode the 50 miles out to the Rapha Archive store in Shepton Mallet and back; a ride I had planned earlier this year to coincide with my wife's 'girls weekend' away. Such rides have become something of a tradition, but it has been 2 years since one of these reached the100 mile mark, the last one being my Portland 100, which I rode with another 3 club mates, through Biblical weather to the Portland Bill lighthouse and back.
There was, however, no altruism in my Rapha 100, indeed when I came up with the idea, I had honestly not even realised that it was 100 miles. It was an idea hatched after visiting my favourite cycling apparel supplier and overhearing that cyclists arriving on 2 wheels may be given a cherished musette bag to carry home any purchases. Yes, we could have parked down the road and rolled in, but that just would not have been cricket!
Rapha 100 at Glastonbury
So, it was with 3 fellow Pedallers, Nick, Mark and Glenn, our Near Naked Man (a male charity thing), that we formed up on Saturday morning to pedal east into Somerset. Our route out took us through the market town of Crewkerne with a very welcomed tailwind. It was here that we made our first coffee stop at the cycling friendly Number 7 the Cafe we'd selected from the very useful Cycling Cafe Network, something which I'll share more on in the future.
Once on Somerset Levels, a very different landscape from our usual undulating Devon lanes, we enjoyed the rarity of being able to chaingang along pleasant straight and level roads. One challenging aspect of this type of cycling, however, is that one has to maintain a steady cadence over quite some distance without the respite of a down hill section; this places quite a different stress on your legs!
Pedalling Through the Rapha Store
We arrived in Shepton Mallet in time for lunch, but not before Nick and I had opportunity to fill musette bags with Rapha goodies! Rapha had its usual array of bubbly assistants keen to talk cycling who welcomed us to stow our bikes securely at the back of the store; what a welcome! After a lengthy shop and lunch, we set out on the return leg. The benefit of a tail wind on the way out was to be our nemesis on the way back, as our tanks were emptied pedalling into a strong headwind for most of the miles back to Axminster. At 75 miles, we had one more welcomed coffee & cake stop, at the Art Tea Zen in Langport, a much welcomed oasis as with the hours moving on, other establishments had long since closed for the weekend.
The final 25 miles were quiet ones, we'd shut down all non-essential communication services to redirect vital energy to our legs! It was a fantastic day spent pedalling across some lovely countryside. The weather was perfect throughout and although 5 miles from home, rain started to fall, even this was greeted with joy, as I was able to pull from my musette bag the newly acquired Rapha rain jacket. As I rolled into to Seaton my Garmin's digital display flickered back 109 miles, my Rapha 100 completed!
When I last wrote, I had just returned from watching 2 fellow pedallers do battle on a local cycling circuit. This weekend I had opportunity to attend a purpose built race circuit in Paignton, the Torbay Velopark. The purpose of the visit was not to race, no I would never put myself through that indignity, but for a cycle coaching session. This was with Martin Burrows of KoM coaching who put us through various drills on a 500m loop of the 1.5km Velopark circuit.
We learned the art of cornering without grounding the pedal, built confidence in close group riding leaning on and placing a hand on your partner's shoulder while pedalling and a range of manoeuvres while cycling in the peloton.
I had my rear view camera running through some of the session and this one here just shouted for a Salsa dance track to be added!
The day was amazing. We did have opportunity to do a little racing amongst ourselves too and this just confirmed my opening statement; I shall not be repeating this anytime soon.
After my worst start to the year since I started back cycling and indeed my most idle period of blogging since I started around the same time, I am hopeful that the arrival of spring will bring new shoots of life back into both.
Today, I cycled a 40 mile circuit with another Pedaller to see two of our club members compete in a Cat4 Cycle Race. The weather was mixed, we were soaked, frozen, boiled and fried, but there's nothing like the camaraderie you get with fellow cyclists.
I'm one of that new generation of working from home IT professionals which means that for at least the past 5 years my interaction with other germ carrying humans has been pretty much no existent. As germs do not travel over the internet I have therefore been free of any serious colds and flu bugs for most of this time. I remind myself of the Norther Exposure Bubble Man, do you remember him?
I haven't told you this before, because I'm not one to brag, but last year I was appointed Club Chairman for my Cycle Club. As with all 'great leaders' one has to have a first 100 days of planning and assessing where to take the organisation. This culminated in me pulling together the largest January AGM gathering in the club's history. The bad news was that 50 people crammed into an average sized restaurant dinning room is not going to be without it's fare share of bugs just on the look out for a susceptible host, preferably with an untested immune system. Yes, in leaving my bubble and mingling with society, I left myself open for a bug onslaught and a dose of the latest strain of man flu.
The following weekend, I managed a 40 mile Coffee Club ride but for the next two weeks, I was confined to my bubble. This morning was the first time since that I've had energy to clip in for a quick spin. All I could manage however, was just 10 miles, but it was great to be pedalling again and to feel the rush of air on my face for the first time in 2 weeks. My morning objective was to make it to Rousdon Bakery to meet up with Nick and Richard for some quality Coffee Club chat, I hope to be joining the full ride again next week.
There was no wearing of club yellow today as, coincidentally, both Nick and I had made the conscious decision to await the upcoming addition of the Coffee Club ride to the AVP calendar before sporting the club colours. One of our AGM decisions was that we would, with committee approval, add a new set of official rides to fill a gap we have in weekend riding and I have a committee meeting on Monday to formally agree the new 2017 schedule.
My roll back to Seaton was considerably quicker and had the added bonus of drafting Dawn's new ladies peloton making its way from Axminster to the Tram Station, the second pickup point. The creation of a ladies group was another output of my first 100 days, as with around 75% of members being male, this was something I felt needed addressing. Great to see so many out again today, I hope we do equally well with the Coffee Club ride once we go public.
It's hard to believe that I've now been pedalling on my Tour for almost 4 years, considerably longer that I could have imagined at the start. This past year has had a number of amazing highlights and this is my annual report.
January
Although I had a slow start, my GoPro was brought back into action to launch my new year in recording an epic 80 mile morning cycle up Halton Hill.
As is also the tradition, I set myself 3 cycling New Year Resolutions:
With the weather bringing that traditionally wintery wet stuff to our shores , I dusted off my turbo trainer for a bit of an in door garage workout; I needed to do something drastic if I was to achieve anywhere near my 30 minutes cycling a day set in my 3rd New Year's Resolution. For the first time since its purchase some 2 years ago, I stuck at this 'indoor' training right through to April. Setting myself not only the challenge of improving my spinning stamina but also coming up with inspiring training soundtracks, I span away the damp, dark, cool mornings with just a little too much enjoyment than was normal. I haven't quite reached that level of post Christmas feasting guilt, still high on cake and chocolate, but it will come. So I'll probably be at it again some time soon, and when I do I'll try to remember to share some of my favourite spinning mixes.
February also saw me achieve my 2nd New Year's Resolution, to build a Venge .. however, once I'd researched the cost of even the frame alone, I was beginning to think this would never be realised. Then, a note from a friend that a Venge was going for sale down in Cornwall caught my eye. Within days, for the price of a frame I ventured across the boarder to add a bright orange Venge to my Specialized stable!
March
I joined my local cycling club way back in May 2013 after a reading an article in the local paper of them having just returned from a French trip to Brittany. I had thought at the time that I'd like to do something like that someday and in March last year, to mark my 3rd anniversary of cycling, I finally took the plunge and joined the Pedallers on the French Foray.
April
With the evenings getting lighter and the days getting warmer, I started to think of leaving the garage for more of that outdoor kind of cycling. Lining up for the Hammer, my first sportive of the year, I would have been justified in thinking I'd ventured out just a little too early, as half the field took a look at the weather and failed to even turn up!
Back indoors, Ned Boulting arrived in Lyme Regis to test out his new 'Bikeology' stage show. I would not have believed then, as I tweeted after the show how the first haft was crap but the second was an improvement, that Ned would use this tweet in the final cut later in the year. My very good friend, Steve, went to see the November showing in Leamington Spa and as good as fell off his chair when he saw my Tour de Fitness tweet on the screen!
May
Come May, I was firmly back in the saddle, pedalling an impressive 485 miles by the month end. Just to put this in perspective, my next best performing month was February when I hit the turbo and boosted my road miles to 371. May was such a 'full-on' month, because I was late in getting in some serious training for the 22nd May Welsh Velothon.
The Velothon Finishers
Part of this training included the epic AVP Exmoor Classic in which my 3rd movie of the year will give you a feel for what went on.
June
On my annual summer vacation to France, I was again accompanied by one of my bikes. This year, with no Mont Ventoux climb in plan, it was the turn of my newest edition, the Venge.
The Venge in France
July
Back from France, I was thrown straight into helping to marshal Seaton's first Cyclefest Criterium organised by our neighbouring race club, the Chard Wheelers. This was followed shortly after by my return to the Dartmoor Classic, the first proper sportive I completed back in 2014. My goal this year was to win a silver medal, having missed this by no more than 3 minutes last time.
This year I was just 5 minutes off the gold, so roll on 2018! Other rides of note this month included the Blagdon Hill Descent for which I produced my last video of 2016 and the Red Arrows ride.
August
August was a bit of a non-event ..
September
The Tour of Britain returned to Devon in 2016 and our club used the Sidmouth to Haytor stage as the route for our annual 100 miler. I led the 'medio' 75 miler and loved it! This is the first year since 2013 that I've not done a 100 mile ride and I'm OK with this as a) I've nothing more to prove in that area and b) I've found that 100 km is my favoured distance, finding the last 40 or so miles a bit of a bore!
JRB leads out the Peloton
My final big ride of September was the Ax-pedition .. yes the local sportive I said I'd never do again! As it was, I had a great ride with new pedalling buddie, Nick .. although we agreed that we might as well have just been out for a Sunday ride (yes, I've waxed lyrically on this subject many times before) .
October
Another non-event month, although I did read a very good book .. Ned Boulting's 'On the Road Bike' which totally explained where he was coming from back in April in his Bikeology show!
November
November totally passed me by. Yes I did the usual rides, but nothing spectacular or of note happened. What this lack of activity encouraged me to do, however, was to assess that every November since the start of time (2013) has been the same!
December
As I drew the shutters across on 2016, I was pleased to see that a new Saturday ride Glenn and I had started a few months back was still running and seemed to be gaining a permanent place in our cycling calendar; the Coffee Club Ride.
My 2016 mileage was so close to that of 2015 but if you see that light yellow section in this year's bar, that was my early turbo work, I'm so glad I achieved this new year's resolution!
My year on year mileage
I'm still working on my 2017 New Year's resolutions, but as I have now completed my Tour of Britain closed sportives (England, Scotland & Wales) and with my love hate relationship of them, my current thought is to have a sportive free year!
In place of these expensive marshalled rides or the cheap and pointless Audax rides, having so enjoyed the Sidmouth to Haytor stage ride, I'd like to organise a series of similarly epic club rides in different areas of the SW. This needs more thought, so watch this space .. Indeed, after me saying this I would not be surprised if you were to see me enter my most despised February Audax, the Primrose Path! Either way, I'm looking forward to another year of cycling.
Back in October my passion for Rapha took an educational turn when they launched a jersey to commemorate the Peace Race. I had never heard of this but after a bit of background reading I learned that this was basically the cold war Tour de France for the Eastern European countries. The next event will be of no surprise to those who know me, I splashed out on not just the jersey, but also the limited edition game of the race which could only be purchased with a jersey! Oh yes, the book of the race too!
I kept it secure in its box for Christmas, having to then close my eyes to the 30% discount Rapha frustratingly applied to its ticket price in the Boxing day sales!
Anyway, I was thrilled to take the board game out on its first outing on New Years Day. No need for screens, VR or paddles here .. ace! ✌️
