The Cycling Thread

[maviczap]

Nice one, glad to see you're getting out again. Its a lovely day for a ride here, no wind & sunshine

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by Luckypants

In the meantime I think I will be doing this as my final sportive of the year. http://www.roadsportives.co.uk/ruthin.php

Did this at the weekend, rode from home in order to make it 100 miles total. The route differed significantly from that published, the main difference being we were sent up 'The Road to Hell' (as it is known) from Denbigh. It ended up being short, so I did a lap of Ruthin after the Sportive before riding home, in order to make 100 miles! This is my first ever 100 mile ride. Here is my mate's Garmin plot of the ride, he rode from Mold so ignore the little tails at start and finish!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/223178533

This was not as hard as the Wild Wales sportive 4 weeks ago, that was a leg breaker! Craig's Garmin plot of that is below for comparison...

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/215932331

[fizzwheel]

Well done Mike, nothing beats that feeling when the computer clocks round 100 miles !

[maviczap]

Chapau Mike doing 100 miles in that terrain is bloomin good

[maviczap]

Well here's a summary of last weeks Alpes trip

Caught the Eurostar to Valance via Paris (not recommended!) and was collected by Roger from Velovercors

http://www.velovercors.com/index.html

Great location & great hosts, as Roger is an ex pro cyclist.

Unbeknown to us, we were the first group to book for their Alpe D'Huez tour, so we were the test pilots! I'd only seen the maps & route profiles the week before and all but one was rated as high difficulty!

Day 1

So we set off with some of the other guests, and our luggage would follow. The first part of the ride up the Grand Goulets was pretty damn hard for a first day climbs of up to 10%, and when we split from the group it didn't get any easier with some bits going to 12% and even 15%!!!

Once over the top (and after lunch) we descended down to the classic Tour town finish at Villard de Lans. Down the valley and then we turned off the main road and had a pleasant ride to St Nizer, where there was a fantastic descent, few cars at all. We missed a turn in our directions & descended too far and had to get back on route, which meant a bit more brutal climbing. Back on route we made it to the next point in our directions, but after that we got lost again! Not a great start, but the owner of the Chateau came and picked us up, as we were in the next valley! We'd already done 54 miles of hard riding & it was 6 pm! We'd have still been cycling at 8 at night!

Here's the route & link to my Garmin



http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220733746

Here where we stayed & I would highly recommend it if you were passing through or wanted to stay a while



http://www.lemanoirdesalberges.com/

[fizzwheel]

Mav - cant see your garmin track on garmin connect. Have you got the security set so that its private ?

[maviczap]

Originally Posted by fizzwheel

Mav - cant see your garmin track on garmin connect. Have you got the security set so that its private ?

Try it again, I had made them public, but when I tried it wouldn't let me in.

I've changed it back to 'everyone' can view it.

Let me know if you can't see it

[fizzwheel]

Nope still cant.

On the individual ride in garmin connect, theres a little padlock symbol. It is open or closed, if its closed thats why I cant see it.

[maviczap]

Ah my bad, fixed it now Fizz, thanks.

[Dipper]

That's a pretty impressive max speed you had there Mavi

Hats off to you guys, the thought of the sort of climbing you do seems really daunting to me.