AVP do the 2018 Gridiron

The Gridiron is a type of cycling sportive more akin to an Audax which has been run by the Wessex CTC for the past 26 years. Ordinarily 1000 riders saddle up in the late autumn sun for a 100 km ride around the New Forrest. This, my first entry on the Gridiron was secured following considerable peer pressure with the promise of great scenery and weather.

I've condensed 6 hours of on bike footage into a 4 minute video. This provides evidence of the promised amazing weather and scenery. Surprisingly, the main protagonist behind me securing entry decided not to venture out and join me on my first ever appearance at this, his most favourite of events!

Yes it rained non-stop for the 6 hours, not a stitch on me remained dry!


 

If Rapha Supplied James Bond

I've just taken delivery of issue 7 of Rapha's Mondial Magazine, a stylish magazine that "broadens the reference points of the sport" with "incisive writing and stunning photography" and pages you feel you should be wearing white cotton gloves to turn. Anyway this isn't intended to be another product review but I just had to share the picture which greeted me as I lifted the lid on the box ...

For a fanatical Bond fan, that I am, this was a sight to die another day for! My two passions in one box! You can see how it was a small step then to imagine that this would be how 007's delivery would look if Rapha supplied James Bond!

The Wahoo Elemnt Bolt - Product Review

I'm not known from my product reviews, the last time I came close was this time last year when I penned a few words on SRAM's new eTAP; my first venture into electronic gears and wireless at that. The brave thing about that purchase was that I moved away from Shimano, the market leader in gears, for the innovative competition. Today, I'm going to share a review I just wrote for a GPS device which is not, shock horror, a Garmin.

5 years ago, almost to the day, I purchased my first ever GPS device and ever since, I've been a fan and early adopter of all things Garmin. So for this brand loyal of loyal customers to consider another supplier would ordinarily be unheard of. Having cycled with latest and greatest Garmin 820 for the last 2 or less years, I've become tired of its ever diminishing battery life and a touch screen technology which, you may have read, became totally unusable on a recent soggy sportive. Not unsurprisingly, therefore, for some weeks now, I've been looking at what the competition has to offer.

In a recent article, I saw that the enigmatic Peter Sagan and his Bora Hansgrohe pro cycling team use the Wahoo, as do the impressive line up at team Katusha Alpecin, so this had to be something to check out. Oh yes, the Rapha CC promote it too, so I should probably follow, enough said!

The Wahoo Elemnt Bolt is the closest fit to my existing Garmin 820 and with an unbelievable 15 hour battery life, no touchscreen madness and an irresistible come and get price tag, yes, the deal was done! Another move away from the market leader, to the innovative.

And now for the detailed review .. non prospective buyers can go put the kettle on!

To me, the quality of packaging is is important, and Wahoo's exceeded expectation. Those who may be AppleMac users or buy from Rapha will know that feeling of awe when lifting the lid on a new device or piece of clothing. When I first picked it out of its box, the weight of the Bolt appeared too light to be complete, but in cycling, where weight is not a sign of quality, this was a good first impression. It really does feel noticeably lighter in the hand to that of my Garmin, but just 7 grams according to the specification though I'm not sufficiently bothered to weigh them myself.

Setup was straight forward and configuring via my iPhone quick and simple. It secures to the out front mount in a similar way to the Garmin but the angles are 90 degrees off such that the two devices can not be interchanged. On the bike it looks stealth like as it integrates flush with its mount, giving that aero benefit of 50% reduction in air resistance that the marketing and design gurus talk about, however minor, I need all the marginal gains I can get.

On the road, I love the clear display, particularly the two tone view which enables you to see at a glance one main reading, e.g. Speed or Power. The zoom function, increasing and reducing displayed values is neat too, and saves having to switch screens.

Navigation is clear and precise and saved routes can be uploaded via Ride with GPS without having to connect via cable and load files manually .. a nice feature. While it does not display in colour, probably a key reason for the impressive battery life, the screen size does not really warrant such battery sapping luxury. The neon lights, however are a bit of an oddity; in bright sun they are difficult to see and in darkness a bit distracting, but I'm working with them to see if they provide any value I've yet to understand!

There are many other features, I've yet to discover and probably don't need but so far the buttons have been far more responsive and reliable than touch screen technology and battery life is no longer a nagging worry. Only cons are that there is no route correction while navigating if you go off course, but you can zoom out your map to see where you went wrong and I upload to a number of Strava like tools and there is no interface with Endomondo which means I need to manually do this.

Just as I used to be a Microsoft early adopter and on moving to a AppleMac have never looked back, part of me is wondering if Wahoo could be the new AppleMac to Garmin's Microsoft.

My advice is, give it a go .. you may never go back.

New Coffee Club Ride

After a 4 week absence due to France and the Dartmoor Classic, I returned this Saturday to join our Coffee Club ride.

There's not been much to report on the Coffee Club ride side of things of late, other than we had a cup of coffee at Rousdon Village Bakery and did the Marshwood circuit! That's just about what we've always done for the past 18 months. Today was a bit different, we've a new Coffee Shop and route, so I thought I'd share.

After a round of indecision attempting to please all and with many key Coffee Clubbers otherwise engaged, it ended up that just 3 of us, Jolly, Richard and I, met at the new Colyford Filling Station Cafe for our pre ride coffee. This is a very new addition to our cycling coffee shops and harks back to the old Broom Wagon. Service is with a smile and the coffee is excellent. I've yet to try the cakes and sandwiches but with them showing Le Tour for the next 3 weeks, I'm thinking at least one lunchtime is going to involve a pedal over to try the full service!

Once we'd all arrived, it was touch and go as to whether we would be riding any further as the TdF coverage had started and with the heat building outside, we could have quite happily hunkered down for a bit of an all day viewing session. We did, however, do the right thing. We remounted our 2 wheeled steeds and headed on to Sidmouth in search of ice cream via Beer and Branscombe, with the contingency that if it got too hot, we'd make for the sanctuary of the place with the Donkeys! It's good to have a goal. As it was, the shady lanes up by Beer Caves enabled us to drop into Sidmouth past the Observatory .. which by the way, my Yorkshire friend thinks is, itself, a shady place, in that the signage suggests "Norman Lokyer Observatory" I'll let you think that one through! 😉

Ice creams were safely procured in Sidmouth, though Richard was lucky to make it, deciding on risking the ford crossing. I was hoping to have a film of this but forgot that my camera has a power saving feature such that it had not been on since we'd left the Cafe! The return to Seaton was via a smouldering climb to the Hare & Hounds followed by a cooling Team TT across Farway Common. Richard pealed off to Colyton while Jolly and I dropped back into Colyford to check on the TdF and partake in another, post ride, coffee. .. I can see this route and pre and post ride coffees becoming a new standard for the Coffee Club Ride 👍🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️

Dartmoor Classic 2018

The Dartmoor Classic holds a special place in my cycling 'career'. It was the first proper sportive, post nephrolithiasis, that I completed back in 2014. I've ridden it once since, back in 2016 and committed last year to return again, probably for the final time, in an attempt to complete my medal haul; bronze in 2014, silver in 2016, thus going for gold in 2018.

I'd signed up Andy, my coach and co rider on my first Classic and Nick, another strong rider from the Coffee Club as my domestiques. The plan was for Nick to pull me along the flats and Andy to pace me up the hills. Things did not however quite go to plan.

Two weeks of wine and cheese in France the week before the ride, meant I would be carrying an additional 0.5 kg up those hills. Nick raised the flag that he too had been off the bike 2 weeks and was below par, and then Andy had to drop from the team! Not the best preparation for what is probably one of the most challenging amateur UK cycling events.

Since returning from France, the weather at home had been as hot as the Mediterranean version I'd  just left. It was looking like we were in for a scorching ride, so I ditched the tool box and added a second water bottle to the bike. As the day got closer, the weather seemed to be looking a little odd for the Sunday in question. A black rain cloud and lightening strike had been added to the day's weather chart! The question of what to wear is hard enough when you know the weather, but this added a complexity that sent me into a flat spin!

On the morning of the ride I awoke early and could have been on the road easily an hour before the agreed 6:30 am pickup time. Nick was, however, half an hour late! I don't do late, so this did not put me in a good place. We arrived at the designated carpark to find no marshals. On previous events I had relied on Andy to know how we got to the start. My sense of direction is pitiful. With no Andy we relied on Google Maps to set us off in the right direction.

Numbers pined on jerseys and timing chips affixed to helmets we made our way to the start. We were led out over a 2 mile stretch of suburbia to the timed start on the edge of Dartmoor. I activated my Garmin computer as we crossed the line and the 4hr 35min countdown, the time required for gold, displayed on my screen. We'd had a few drops of rain but nothing to make us think we should have packed our jackets. The sky looked brooding but we were confident any rain would fall elsewhere. Just a few minutes after entering the Dartmoor National Park, the heavens opened and the taps were not turned off until we exited the park some 4 hours later!

The hills were not too troublesome as we picked our way through dismounted walking riders and navigated the scree strewn gushing river beds which had earlier been smooth sun scorched asphalt. En route a rider had misread the conditions on a steep downhill section through trees and an ambulance now blocked our path as he / she received medical attention. At the Princetown feed station I was keen to push on, the rain had ensured I'd not drank dry my bottles, I had packed enough food for a weekend safari and my legs were feeling almost good, but Nick required a pit stop. This brought back memories of my first Classic where it was I who dithered in the feed zone and ended missing silver by a few minutes

Back in the race, we ground our way over the undulating moorland to the finish at Newton Abbot. The home stretch was fast as Nick called out that his computer reported we may just make that gold time and led the charge for home. My computer had given up some time back when the torrent of rain on the touch screen took away any control over the view I may have wanted to see. It was stuck alternating, at the will of nature, between a map of the moor and some configuration data of absolutely no interest nor use to me, I just wanted to know how much time I had left to secure gold!

Riding into Newton Abbot, the sun came out and the rain ceased. It crossed my mind that may be all was going to be OK after all. We secured our bikes in the parc fermé and trotted gingerly over slippery damp flooring into race HQ for our times ..  the lady behind the computer terminal gave me ecstatic congratulations .. "4hrs 45mins, you've won Silver!" ... I never heard what followed, but I have a memory of her face dropping when I did not react the way I should to receiving my silver medal.  Strava reports my actual ride time as 4hrs 35mins 59 secs .. thus, without the ambulance and feed station delays, I would still have missed gold by 59 secs!

I can now understand how those Olympians feel stood on the second step of the podium. In contrast to the time I won bronze back in 2014,  we took no photos of us proudly wearing our medals, we did not wonder the post ride festival adorned in bling .. we just grabbed a sandwich and sat drip drying on a bench under the warming sun, dreaming of what might have been.

Back in the EUFR

A trip across the Channel, into Europe and France, has become a favourite annual pilgrimage of mine, so make the journey twice in the same year, and with the bike, was a real treat!

In April, you'll recall it was a quick sortie into Normandy. June saw us taking a 2 week holiday in the Gard, South of France. While not being a cycling holiday, I did manage to snatch a few good rides .. here's just a taster.

Étape de Marche

While the rest of the crew piled into the car to do the 10 mile journey to the weekly Saturday market, I took to two wheels with a plan to meet them for coffee. There aren't so many hills in these parts but the combination of wind and deep FFWD rims were more than enough to contend with! Bottom bracket looked to have gone too, so with the infernal creaking combined with my DT Swiss free-hub, there was no excuse not to hear me coming!

Étape Jonathan ne Creak pas

Post beach on the hottest day of the week I just had to do a circuit to shake down that creaking crank .. which I was pleased to have fixed! Schoolboy error, I had left rear wheel in maintenance mode!

Étape Mount Bouquet

I couldn't get across to Mont Ventoux this year but found a worthy adversary on a rolling 30 mile morning ride. In heat of 30+ degrees and strong northerly winds, it felt equal to the memory of my first climb up the Beast of Provence some 3 years ago.

Étape du Ricard 

A short stop for refreshments at Le Saint Maurice on a Sunday ride .. even the twizzle stick is chartreuse 😎 @rapha styling to the end

With Normandy being so close, it would be rude not to!

We have this cycling group, the Coffee Club. It's sort of a Saturday morning cycling club made up of members from my official club, the Axe Valley Pedallers. If you remember, this is the one I'm also the Chairman of. We meet Saturdays in the local coffee shop, the Rousdon Village Bakery, for a 30-40 mile ride across East Devon, Somerset and Dorset. We had been musing earlier this year of taking a week out together to cycle in the draft of the pros on the climbs of Majorca. After much debate, we settled first on a long weekend in Normandy, well, with it being so close, it would be rude not to, particularly as France, unlike the UK even before the cold snap destroyed even the best of our roads,   is so cycling friendly.

The plan was to take the Thursday overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Outsterham carrying on our backs as much kit as we'd need for three days riding and return on the Sunday afternoon sailing. Le club de cafe tour de Normande went pretty much like clockwork.

Four of us coffee clubbers joined the tour and checked in for the sailing at 9:00 pm. The UK staff were great in finding us cover pending the on boarding, but as we wound our way closer to the ferry, the Brittany Ferry load master lost the plot and disgustingly left around 20 cyclists freezing the late night air and choking on lorry fumes, to the very end. It was gone 10:30 pm that we actually made our way up the boarding ramp to find that the area set aside for bikes was no more than 10 metres inside the doors, it made no sense as to why we were left until the end! It was, however, the only downer of the weekend and probably befitting that it should have been on the British leg!

After 4 hours kip on the overnight sailing, we disembarked and pedalled no more than a mile to the hotel. The greeting we received from the Best Western La Mare was the best ever. They secured our bags without a second thought and were welcoming without fault throughout the weekend. Us four Coffee Clubbers then took a 60 mile ride along the D-Day beaches to Bayeux and back, a route I've taken a number times over the years by car, but this was totally different experience. Flat smooth asphalt was a joy to cycle and we ate up the miles with as much gusto as we did the French cuisine and friendship.

On day two, we continued our little French excursion, by heading further south via Thury-Harcourt to Falaise, William the Conqueror’s birth place. It was a long day in the saddle with just shy of 90 miles covered. Thury-Harcourt was packed with firemen and their engines for some major event but oddly we found little evidence of its twinning with Seaton, even the Tourist Centre seemed unaware of it - though it could have been us losing something in translation! Having climbed out of Clecy we were met by a route barrée and an official blocking our path. We had omitted to check the closed road rallying calendar! Luckily, our persistence and eloquent French worked its magic and we were permittedto continue to Falaise; there was no way we could contemplate repeating that epic climb via an alternate route. Weather was perfect, seeing kit shed through the day leaving us in short sleeves by the end.

Day three, Sunday and our last morning in France,  saw the Coffee Clubbers’ retrace the best of the route we took on Friday. We’d amazingly avoided the rain since arriving but all forecasts agreed we’d have a wet ride if we were to venture out on this last day. We unanimously agreed however that recent coffee club rides had prepared us for anything nature could throw at us, so we were riding!

We remained dry for the first half of our 30 mile morning spin but after stopping for lunch, the heavens opened and we were assured a soggy ride to the ferry. In a total reversal of fortunes experienced at Portsmouth where - it seemed through spite alone - cyclists were left ‘till last to board, the Ousterham Brittany Ferry staff took pity on us soaked Pedallers and directed us to board before the cars had even lined up! We chose to buy a cabin to change and thaw out .. a highly recommended plan if you ever find yourself in a similar position.

France was, as expected, an amazing place to cycle. The culture of giving way to cyclists and respecting safe passing distances was a breath of fresh air and the infrastructure of cycle paths clear of debris and smother that the standard road surfaces something I can only wish the UK highways agencies would take to board. 

We're now already discussing where we should go next year, and with the time available, we could even see an agreement on a Majorca excursion! Sadly, it's interesting how we're not thinking of a local destination, I wonder what difference Brexit will make. Watch this space .. on all counts!