Friday, 8 August 2014

The RideLondon Soundtrack

Well we've 4 hours in the car tomorrow, so I had to pull together a RideLondon soundtrack to get us started .. and here it is:
  1. Bicycle Race - Queen
  2. Ride On Time - Black Box
  3. Rolling In The Deep - Adele
  4. Freewheel - Josh Osho
  5. Ticket To Ride  - The Beatles
  6. Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
  7. Man Machine - Robbie Williams
  8. Spinning Around - Kylie Minogue
  9. Smokey Joe's Cafe - Paolo Nutini
  10. Roll To Me - Del Amitri
  11. Everybody Hurts - R.E.M.
  12. Hold On, I'm Coming - Sam & Dave
  13. Chain Gang - Sam Cooke
  14. See That My Bike's Kept Clean - Half Man Half Biscuite
  15. Pedal Pushin' Papa - Billy Ward & His Dominoes
  16. Back On The Chain Gang - Pretenders
  17. Tour de France '03 (Version 3) - Kraftwerk
Did you spot the cake stop?

Bikes are loaded

Well we're ready for the off, or at least the bikes are loaded!

Oh and since taking this picture, the Roubaix has had its mudguards fitted. I can't avoid the fact that it's going to rain on the day.

We leave at 6:00 am for London.


Sunday, 3 August 2014

RideLondon-Surrey 100 Sponsor Update - 7 Days to go!

Further to my last update, I am so grateful for your generosity in supporting me with my fund raising efforts and inspiring me to cycle on. You have not only encouraged me to get out training and pedal an unprecedented - in my short cycling career - 500 miles during the month of July but you’ve also now raised a staggering £1,200 towards Diabetes research, the charity I have chosen to ride for on the RideLondon Surrey 100, taking place in, unbelievably, just 7 days.

My RideLondon training commenced for real in May!

I wrote in my blog back in May of the 2.9 million in the UK who are currently diagnosed with diabetes, that's 4.5% of the population and that how In the next 10 years, it is forecast that this figure will rise to 4 million!  

Here are some other facts about diabetes:

• 347 million people worldwide have diabetes
• In 2004, an estimated 3.4 million people died from consequences of high fasting blood sugar
• More than 80% of diabetes deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries
• WHO projects that diabetes will be the 7th leading cause of death in 2030 
• Healthy diet, regular physical activity, maintaining a normal body weight and avoiding tobacco use can prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes.


As you will know, my mother was diagnosed with late-onset Type 1 diabetes 10 years ago and this is why has I have been inspired to raise money for Diabetes UK to fund more research into better ways to care for people with diabetes and into the cause of Types 1 diabetes.

So, at the time of writing, in just one week my ride will be complete … it is hard to believe that all these months of preparation will soon be complete. On the day, for those of you able to get to London, Team Diabetes have produced a supporter’s pack which can be found here: https://regonline.activeeurope.com/custImages/360000/360523/Ride%20London/RideLondon_CheerersPack_SignOff1807_nomarks.pdf

The timeline proposed by Team Diabetes for the day is: 
7am–10.30am – Kingston Bridge Cheer Point 10am–5pm – Millbank Cheer Point 11am–6.30pm – Cool Down Party

And having worked through the logistics with my RideLondon buddy, Jason - over coffee and cake, mid training ride this weekend - these are our expected times at the various checkpoints:

07:55 Start
09:40  First Hub Molesey (26 mi)
11:05  Hub 2 Newlands Corner (47 mi) 
11:45  Leith Hill (57 mi)
12:30  Box Hill (68 mi)
12:55  Hub 3 Leatherhead (75 mi)
14:35  Finish The Mall (100 mi)

This is based on an average of 16 mph and no stops.


The RideLondon Route
You can catch up on my training ride musings, photos and videos — yes I’ve been practising some more with my new video camera ahead of the day — via my blog here .. http://tourdefitness.blogspot.co.uk.  

Wifi and energy willing, I will keep you posted over the RideLondon weekend with blog & FaceBook updates, and perhaps a Tweet or two .. my twitter address is readboj, adopted from my 'green screen' days that many of my IT colleagues will appreciate!

Tuesday, 29 July 2014

The Honiton Wheel Circuit

With just 11 days until my RideLondon event, I met up this evening with 7 other Pedallers for our 4th AVP 100 miler training ride. Tonight Buster led us on a 40 mile circuit, which had it been a wheel, Honiton would have been the hub. OK, so the wheel would have to have been the shape of Africa, but hopefully you get the point.

No video tonight as after feedback from earlier postings, I was trying a different camera angle and approach with the GoPro attached to my seat post. While I hope you enjoy the results, I will not be repeating the exercise any time soon as my jersey pockets had to carry the contents of my saddle bag and the camera bracket chafed my thighs - the things I do for my art!

Kelly at speed on my wheel
The training is nearing an end!
You can still sponsor me at justgiving.com/Jonathan-Read-Bone/ or by texting “JJRB64 £(amount) to 70070.

Sunday, 27 July 2014

The Other Sunday Morning Ride

Well us Axe Valley Pedallers can't be said to be coordinated in our ride planning or may be we just have such numbers that we can enjoy the variety of rides. A couple of weeks back Curtis and Clive did a parallel Tuesday ride to that Buster was running and today, Andy, Kelly, my RideLondon buddy Jason and I rode out at 08:00 am at the same time as Rex, Curtis, Tim, Hovis and Nelly, our pelotons passing as we travelled in opposite directions .. I just wish I had my camera on as it would have been quite a shot.


When I started training for the 2013 AVP 100 miler, Andy picked out this great 40 mile route to Honiton through Sidmouth to Ottery returning via Stockland hill and it's become quite a favourite of mine since. Today, to mix things up a little, we cycled this route in reverse.


The highlight of this ride for me is always the cake stop at the Boston Tea Party, so this had to be included in the itinerary, as was my first ever cycle through the Sid ford, a bee in the helmet for both Andy and I, and a must for any ride concluding in Seaton during daylight .. a final coffee at the Broom Wagon! All of this has been captured, as you'd expect in stills and my latest video http://youtu.be/SIKunMB8XOw


The training is nearing an end! 
You can still sponsor me at justgiving.com/Jonathan-Read-Bone/ or by texting “JJRB64 £(amount) to 70070.

Thursday, 24 July 2014

AVP Evening Ride with Quiff & The Near Naked Man

Thursday night is cycling night in Seaton ... well there are other things going on in and around, such as the Red Arrows flying over Lyme Regis, but for me even the draw of an air display could not keep me away from from my training.

After Tuesday's epic ride, I was looking forward to a more gentle spin ahead of a longer weekend ride. Arriving in at the Kings Head rallying point, I could see in addition to the usual suspects that Quiff had joined us. Quiff runs a quick paced Sunday ride which I had the privilege of joining on a couple of occasions last year, before I accepted after being dropped on a ride back in November, that I needed more training to do them justice. This was the ride which actually started the more regular social Sunday rides which Andy and I still try to get out on.

We have, more recently, been known on Thursday nights to split into two groups, for a brisk and gentle paced ride. Ordinarily, I would not have entertained following Quiff out on the brisk ride but with Andy away with the Arrows, and an unexplained desire to test myself, following all this training  I've been doing for the RideLondon, I thought, why not:
- double the distance,
- double the pain .. and hopefully
- double the gain!

Out with the speedy group!
The speedy group, in the end, actually only consisted of Quiff, myself and the Near Naked Man (Glenn, the proprietor of the Broom Wagon coffee shop and member of the MCAC), the remaining 8 or 9 riders chose the gentle paced route. If I ever thought someone knew something I didn't, this was one of those times.

We headed out briskly towards Colyton where some how I earned a Strava segment KOM and a flurry of PRs climbing Watchcombe Hill to Offwell .. this ride was really pushing me to my limit. In all we covered 41 miles to Uppotery, across the A303 to Churchinford and back through Membury and Axminster. I think it was out of Membury that we started a chain gang, rapidly rotating positions on the road to maximise our speed. I remember the last time I tried this I could not keep up, on this occasion I stayed on the wheel as we maintained a 20 mph plus average over the undulating couple of miles.


As expected this was a quick ride, but I survived. I also achieved a 20 km PB. Feeling good for London! If you've not yet sponsored me, surely I'm earning it now :) www.justgiving.com/Jonathan-Read-Bone/ or Text JJRB64 £x to 70070

Wednesday, 23 July 2014

Evening Dorset Tour

Regular readers will have noticed that Tuesday evenings have become serious training rides ahead of the AVP 100 miler planned fro the end of August. Fortuitously this has enabled me to join these new club rides to up my mileage ahead of my earlier 100 miler .. yes the RideLondon just over 2 weeks away now!


Around 9 Pedallers met up at Seaton Health Centre bus stop for our third Tuesday ride lead by our master route planner, Buster. For this ride, Buster had a long and challenging circuit worked out with what seemed to be a tour of a Dorset .. we headed over to Lyme Regis, through Charmouth, Salway Ash, Broardwindsor and back via Marshwood to Axmister and home.


Phew, Tuesday nights are certainly becoming rides with an attitude. Around 45 miles covered, 3-4000 ft of climb, depending on whose Garmin you believe, and a need for lights as it was after 10:30 pm by the time we were cycling back into Seaton. Those last 10 miles were the fastest I ever ridden over that distance, as I achieved a personal best of 28m:09s which is a 1m:22s improvement on my previous record set in June while riding the Dartmoor Classic .. amazing what a difference it makes cycling over level ground, roll on London!