New Wheels on the Specialized Fleet

Too wet & windy to ride so just finished swapping the FFWD wheels around on the Specialized fleet!

One set acquired last year have just seen daylight for the first time. Roll on summer!

360° around Loch Ness

At the end of last year I received a Facebook message from my good friends in Scotland, suggesting I may like to participate in a closed road sportive around Loch Ness, called the Etape Loch Ness.  Having had such a good year on the bike and knowing that April, the scheduled month for the event, would not clash this time with any family holiday, I blindly jumped at the opportunity. Within 30 minutes we had signed up as a team of 3 - the 3Bs (we met at the BBBs) - and I was elated to think of this being the first event on which to test out my new Specialized Tarmac, which by then, had just been mothballed for the winter. It then dawned on me just how far away Loch Ness is from Devon, 11 hours by car!

Etape Loch Ness Route

On Friday, I was reminded of this event with an email from the organisers. It started "Yes, you read that correctly – time has done its ‘whizzing by’ trick again and here we are with only six weeks until the second Etape Loch Ness! ... With 3300 riders taking part this year, the event is now FULL and official charity, Macmillan Cancer Support, are delighted with the fantastic take-up of their places." This makes it all so real and I know that 6 weeks will just fly by. Time to get down to some serious training!

I've just checked my entry on the web site .. to make sure I've not been dreaming and yes, I'm there, representing the Axe Valley Pedallers. I don't think many will be travelling as far, indeed looking down the list of cycling clubs, not surprisingly, they have a very northern sound to them. The route is an anti clockwise circuit of the Loch, departing and finishing in Inverness, with one steep climb at the half way point.

Luckily, hill climbing experience is something I'm not short of, but I do need to get in some good distance rides on the Tarmac. I've plateaued these past few months at around 30 miles, just half the distance required, and the Tarmac has so far not been properly put through its paces. Here's hoping for a few dry weekends ... who would choose to do a sportive in Scotland during April?!

My New Specialised Tarmac

Yes.. we have the patter of new tyres in the household. Today, I collected my new Specialised Tarmac SL4 Expert Mid Compact (there's a mouthful) from the Bike Shed cycle shop in Exeter.

I had to take a day off work to do this as I'd promised myself, for my next bike purchase, to have a Specialized Bike Fit and these are not done on a weekend. While I had decided to go for the basic £100 3 step 2D experience and not the £200 5 step pro video 3D fit .. after all, I'm not planning on entering the Tour de France any time soon .. this bike fit, or "Body Geometry Fit" as Specialised call it, was amazing. Let me take you through the 3 steps to cycling comfort ad performance perfection ..

Tarmac setup for the bike fit

Step 1: PRE-FIT INTERVIEW AND FLEXIBILITY ASSESSMENT
Here, my Body Geometry Fit specialist talked with me about my riding experience and goals, and evaluated my strength and flexibility .. or lack of them! Apparently 30 years of flying a desk had done nothing for my body's flexibility, but it's good to know ones limitations. I was scored against 3 areas:
(1) Hamstring Range. Here I scored 4/10, not a good score even when I was at school, so as expected I slipped into the Red zone on my assessment chart.
(2) Hamstring Isolated. This is where each leg is independently scored having been stretched to its limit of painless movement. Being very much right handed, there was no surprise that my left less well and at the end of the exercise, my chart read, L 42/90 (Red) : R 55/90 (Yellow) .. is it too late to take up yoga?
(3) Hip Flexion. Not sure what this was, but think I may have been fighting back as I was being manoeuvred in this position or else I should be booking my hip replacement surgery soon! Yes, I was in the red zone again.

Step 2: PRODUCT SELECTION
During my assessment, my fitter had me sit on a pleistocene pad and stand on a heat sensitive board. From these he confirmed my saddle was OK for my boney behind but that I needed more arch support in my cycling shoes .. ka-ching! £20 for a new insole, but it did feel better.

Step 3: RIDE ANALYSIS
Here, I pedalled like a possessed thing as my fitter visually assessed my position on the bike and adjusted seat, shoe cleats and handle bars accordingly in order to determine my best and most efficient ride position. This is where we made the greatest gains. My seat hight was raised by at least 2 cm, both cleats were adjusted so that the float (lateral movement) was centralised and the handle bar stem was shortened by at least 1 cm .. I can't tell you how much of an improvement this has made since replicating these changes on my Roubaix.

So, I feel this has certainly, so far anyway, been money well spent.

Ready for our first ride

Back home, as I was already all kitted up, we went our for our first ride together to see the Axe Valley highlights .. the harbour cafe for lunch, Soanes Cycles to check in on Sid and the team and then the Broom Wagon coffee shop for a strong black Americano .. what a perfect end to a perfect day of cycling treats!