Seaton to Bridport and Back

With a number of our Pedallers out today riding the Nello .. and good luck to them all .. I met up with Jason, my RideLondon buddie for a 50 mile tour of Dorset.

The obligatory selfie

Our route took us around Bridport and back. But we'd not really done our homework on where best to make a cafe stop. I realise now we should have called in at West Bay, a recent treasure of a find; as it was, Charmouth was not up to much - they have a bit of development work going on there - so survived on energy bars and bananas. No cake today!

Survived on energy bars and bananas. No cake today!

Still time to sponsor me from the RideLondon on 10-Aug, just 6 weeks away now https://www.justgiving.com/Jonathan-Read-Bone/



A montage of pictures found on the AVP Facebook page

The Lone Pedaller

I think the threat of rain may have kept my fellow Pedallers off the road this evening. I bumped into Buster and Robin unloading their mountain bikes but although out on my winterised Crosstrail, I did not have the required chunky tyres to consider suggesting I tag along!

Soggy and steamed up .. just before I was forced to get the rain cape out

Having kitted up, I was not going to turn in for an early bath, so thought I'd do a gentle solo circuit out to Honiton Golf Club and return to Seaton via Offwell and Colyton. After last week's climbing, I thought I'd avoid the hills today and also keep to some of our better roads.

The obligatory photo stop

I did manage, however to pick up a slow puncture from the road to Offwell which the council crew had strewn with hedge cuttings, I do wish they would sweep up after themselves!

The Lone Pedaller

24 miles covered in 1 hr 55 mins inc the obligatory photo stops for a couple of selfies. I did get a bit of a cooling shower on the way out but was rewarded with warm blow dry on my return as the sun came out!

Dartmoor Classic Medio: Rider 4249

05:00 am the alarm on my phone rings. The bike was stowed in the car last night so there is just myself to get ready. Shower, no shave - did that last night to speed my exit - marginal gains. I down a hot black coffee and a bowl of granola with sliced banana, the fuel of the early morning cyclist. Two large 750ml water bottles filled with my favoured electrolyte and two further soluble tablets put aside with emergency jelly babies for later. Helmet, shoes, gloves, glasses, AVP jersey .. check. Last application of sunscreen, insect repellant and chamois cream and I'm ready for the off.

06:00 am arrive at Andy's. Load one Specialized Allez, helmet, shoes, gloves, glasses .. check. SatNav gives an ETA at Newton Abbot of 07:20, but it does not factor in the time of departure, should take 20 minutes off that. Power up the iPod and select my Dartmoor Classic playlist. Andy's face is a picture. Queen's "Bicycle Race" opens the sound track of our drive west towards the Moors.

Signing in at Ride HQ

07:00 am we arrive at the car park selected for a quick exit post ride - marginal gains. The cyclist unloading next to us is from Leicester, the Classic attracts cyclists from all over the country. It has an amazing reputation and was voted the 2nd favourite UK sportive in 2013, behind RideLondon, and I'm privileged to have a place on both. After unloading from the 'tour bus' Yeti, we follow the mile and a half cycle route to the Newton Abbot Race Course depart. The anticipation builds.

Rider numbers

08:00 am having signed in, numbers added to jersey and bike and time chip to helmet, we are directed to our starting pens, 100 cyclists to each. The organisation is slick. Our time to depart comes quickly and we are lead out of Newton Abbot behind a motorcycle outrider. There is a bit of jostling for position as we get used to riding in close proximity to so many other riders. Awkwardly, a set of traffic lights bring an unnatural break to our impressive peloton, but this puts Andy and I out front for the first set of photographers, strategically positioned around the course.

One piece of traffic we have to give way to

09:00 am the sun cream and perspiration is now stinging my eyes as we climb to the top of Haytor. 15 miles and 1250 ft of ascent, supporters lining the way ringing cow bells and chalking good will messages on the road give us that real TdF treatment. The general road going traffic has little choice but to yield to our weight of numbers and the red flag bearing marshals formalise the blocking of junctions and roundabouts as we climb. That is until we meet a laden tractor up one narrow lane. This is one piece of traffic we have to give way to!

10:00 am from Haytor we drop steeply down towards Ashburton, exhilarating and slightly unnerving to speed along within an unfamiliar group. We turn off before the town to follow the very appealing River Dart. Oh how I would like to dismount and take a plunge. Before I have opportunity to fulfil this cooling experience, we turn away from the river to climb Holne Chase Hill to Ventford Reservoir. It is here that I pass the first crash. The cocktail of a brief down hill run, loose shingle and a tight turn at the reservoir had taken one poor cyclist off guard and brought his ride to an abrupt end.

At the feed station

We're just two and a half hours into the ride now, and we coast into the feed station at Princetown. It is swinging, with hundreds of bikes and riders arriving, refuelling and departing. There is a real carnival atmosphere mixed with anxious looks from those in queues for water, eager not to waste valuable seconds in their challenge to get a good time. The clock is still running. We're in no rush. We refill water bottles, replace consumed energy bars and enjoy a tasty slice of homity pie and quiche. Yum yum.

Rider 4249

11:00 am we'd taken the main B3212 road out of Princetown towards Moretonhampstead. This is a straight and rolling road high up on the moor. Build up enough speed on the descents and you can just about make it to the top of the next rise. Andy picks up a bit of time here such that I'm able to make him out in the distance on the peaks but then lose him from view as I descend into the next trough, like two boats bobbing on the high seas.

12:00 noon our last climb of the day, and what a sting in the tail it is. Doccombe hill is a winding steep ascent which climbs out of Moretonhampstead for no more than 2 miles but seems to last longer. There appears to be no end. It's like climbing a twisting Escher drawing. Fuel from my homity pie has been used and I am thankful for the couple of jelly beans that had been handed to me on the climb out of Princetown. My legs are singing madly, my knees and tendons join in with the chorus but Andy sticks with me and with that encouragement, level road is sighted ahead.

Medal finishers!

1:00 pm the home run, riding on levelled tarmac, winding our way briskly through the back streets of Newton Abbot. We'd zip up our jerseys ready for that victorious ride across the finishing line, again holding back from riders ahead to ensure the cameras catch us in a clear shot.  Our time of 5hr 09mins is good, winning us both bronze medals. Andy is just 10 minutes off silver and I, being in the class of veterans, a mere 3 minutes off the same. Could the feed station stop have been a little shorter, should Andy have kicked on and left me in his dust, could my legs have spun a little faster? Probably, but we had a great day and that's what we set out to do. I'm very proud to have completed the ride and having any medal is a bonus. I never thought I'd say it, but if the opportunity presents itself, I'd do it again!

Next .. 10th August RideLondon-Surrey 100 in aid of Diabetes UK



Check out this YouTube video created of the ride by a fellow cyclist, Nigel Yeo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RJY7f9S8Eds

In Search of Hills on the AVP Evening Ride

Jolly led 10 Pedallers out yesterday evening in search of hills and he found some corkers! We started with the climb from Whitford to Shute woods and followed this up with the even steeper and longer Watchcombe Hill climb (a rare category 3 on Strava). So much for a gentle spin ahead of the Dartmoor Classic on Sunday!

There were no altercations with motorists, that I'm aware of, although we did have to do a u-turn to avoid being flattened by an articulated tractor, dismount to allow two ladies to pass on their horses and navigate around a milk lorry. There's never a dull ride with the Pedallers!

Saturday Exeter Loop

Okay, so we're just a week away from the Dartmoor Classic, that's a cycle ride of 67 miles and 6,300 ft of climbing across some of the most stunning and inhospitable scenery around. Andy and I covered 50 of these miles on our recce and hill climb training a couple of weeks ago and today we'd planned another long preparatory ride starting out from Seaton at 08:30, before the sun got too hot.

On the Cycle Way from Topsham to Exmouth with Andy, Jason and Kelly

We were pleased to be accompanied on our ride by Jason (my RideLondon buddy - [Note: the RideLondon is now less than 2 months away, so please support me if you can]) and Kelly a new member of AVP who, unable to join our Thursday evening rides, was looking to get some weekend miles in. Our circular route was to take us 60 miles via Exeter, Topsham and Exmouth, Kelly adding a further 10 miles having cycled all the way over from Axminster! Being one of our rides, we had 3 coffee stops, ending the ride, obviously at Glenn's Seaton "Broom Wagon Coffee" shop.

At the Broom Wagon Coffee Shop .. our final stop, with Andy and Jason

We did debate adding a further 7 miles to the route to avoid the climb out of Sidmouth up Salcombe Hill past the Norman Lockyer Observatory, but with 3 of us having not done it before, we thought, 'how bad can it be?' .. now we know!

This was a surprisingly quick ride, even taking 19 minutes off my 3hr:54m 50 mile record attained just a few weeks ago on that Dartmoor hill training circuit. Feeling good :)

Sunny AVP Evening Ride

10 Pedallers met up for the Thursday evening 28 mile road ride under a gloriously sunny sky. It was a good quick ride with fortunately no mechanical problems, no punctures, no crashes or fly-pasts ..

there was I believe a near miss with a dog and there may have been an altercation with a motorised vehicle down a narrow lane, but I could I really couldn't say!

Oh yes .. there was a Road Closure to negotiate

Check out the route below, extended a few miles to include Musbury after we'd got to Colyton, as we'd made such good time .. the Branoc had to wait!

Rock to Roll Cycling

63 days until the RideLondon and just 14 days until the Dartmoor Classic, the training continues. I am not sure, however, how much of this is 'training' and how much is just having fun on the bike! I'm sure training should be something planned and linked to a schedule, while I'm just grabbing any opportunity for a cycle. That aside, I'm sure even my unscheduled rides, up hills, down dales and across the moors, is good enough training for my humble couple of sportives.

May was a good month for opportunistic cycling and I'm hoping June will be similar. This week started strongly with me getting back into my pre breakfast rides. Thursday would have been my regular AVP evening saunter but an appointment with my 'stone consultant' brought forward my long weekend visit to see my parents up in Cumbria. As you will have seen my new Yeti now offers me the opportunity to take my cyciling wherever I travel and so this is just what happened.

I made good time over the 360 mile drive north such that I managed a very pleasant 12 mile spin around the Cumbrian lanes. I neglected to mention, however, that I somehow picked up a metatarsal injury earlier in the week and reached a peak of pain that warranted support strapping and anti inflammatory treatment to get me through the ride. It is amazing the wealth of self treatments available for sports injuries these days.

The true substitute for my Thursday evening club circuit was to be a ride out with the local Cumbrian cycling club, Rock to Roll Cycling, centred on the cycle shop of the same name. I met the owner, Rob, last year over a winter glove purchase and was now looking forward to catching up with him again and what better way, than over a 30 mile ride. I was, however, worried that my foot would let me down, so squeezed in another afternoon cycle, this time covering the southern area down and through Castle Carrock. It was so warm and beautiful that I pretty much forgot my foot as I covered those 15 miles quickly across smooth empty roads, quite different from my narrow bumpy Devon lanes. My melange of self treatments was working well and I felt good for the Saturday R2RC ride.

I met Rob at the cycle shop for 08:45. He's such a nice guy, I'd previously mentioned that my gears had been a little noisy of late and he popped the bike into his workshop, a few tweaks later it was as good as new. We were then joined by another 3 riders all decked out the black, yellow and white kit of the R2RC, they looked very professional. Rob had already worked out a route, a 30 mile ride east to Haltwistle, so on the dot of 09:00 we rode out with me the obvious visitor in my yellow AVP colours.

The going was easier than on my Devon circuits, the hills were much gentler and rarely required me to drop into the low gear to complete the climbs. I do think, however, that the route was weighted in this way as some of the down hill drops were quite steep, one of which got the better of me as I ended up being thrown into a bank of nettles and shredding my handle bar tape. While the rest of damage to the bike looks to be just cosmetic, I was still disappointed and annoyed to have been so badly caught out. As for myself, I'm not sure what hurts more, the nettle stings or my wounded pride.

The ride was otherwise highly ejoyable. The company of the other cyclists entertaining and the long quiet wide roads and beautiful rolling scenery made up for the lack of a coffee and cake stop .. although if this was a regular ride for me, I think I would have worked on that.

What struck me most about my first foray into Cumbrian cycling, is how two wheel friendly the roads and drivers seem to be. There are cycle routes a plenty and we even came across a mass of riders taking part in the Haydon Hundred, luckily coming in the opposite direction, and all of which offered a friendly wave or acknowledgement. To then top it all, back at the shop at the end of the ride, I was humbled when Rob produced two rolls of bar tape to replace that which I'd damaged, such a nice guy. I would have had a go at fitting it had the heavens not opened as soon as I'd given the bike a quick post ride clean; we were so lucky to have had such a dry ride.

May Report and the Yeti

May has been my most successful, in distance covered, month since I started cycling again last March. I've been really keyed up in getting the miles covered in training for both my Dartmoor Classic and RideLondon events and increasing my fitness after a battle with a kidney stone!

Monthly distance stats 

May also saw me testing out my new bike carrying vehicle, yes my Skoda Yeti that I spoke of last November and finally took delivery of at the end of April. The Yeti's internal bike carrying system is awesome, as you can see below. It handles two bikes and plenty of kit easily and they arrive safe, dry and clean.

 

My new Yeti bike carrying vehicle

The Dartmoor Classic is being run on Sunday 22 June and I'm using it as some serious training towards my RideLondon 100 mile charity ride for Diabetes UK .. all sponsorship gratefully received. I'm now looking forward to June's cycling .. long days, sun and dry puncture free roads - I live in hope!