Club Run 19 01 08

[Snoop Doug]

Coach Viney told me to go with a group faster than I normally do. Well when I do a cr I go with whatever takes my fancy, if I take the mtb I go with a steady group, normally on my road bike I go with the 17s. Once before I'd been with the 18s. So - today I decided to try to hang on to the 19s.

I managed about an hour before realising that I couldn't take it any more. Shortly before succumbing to a slightly slower tempo Adam helpfully suggested that I view the ride as one Bec hill climb after another. My brain and spirit broke simultaneously.

I turned left @ Partridge and scooted off to the caff. Had a good natter with Joyce and Keith over a bacon sarnie nutritional ignorance is bliss. Kasper was a fairly early arrival too and so we tootled off together whilst a still healthy queue was being serviced @ the caff. Kasper left me for dead (well I have done three sets of intervals through the week) around the golf course and I pootled home. 42 miles which I will pretend is good prep for the ashdown next week.

Oh yes, it was damp, dirty and pretty damn windy too.

A good mornings work after a hard work on the turbo methinks.

Cheers - Snoop (staring at garmin graphs feeling vaguely impressed whilst at the same time not really understanding them....yet)

[George]

Another Good training group clubrun today, had about 7 set off from css, at first I didn't feel very good this morning but after 10 mins of hard riding was d again, I think I ate too much for breakfast and was bloated.

The Reigate steps were duely taken at warp speed capt'n a few guys dropped off but Marek and Ray caught back on by the town.

Steaming through the lanes it was pretty warm today and we were overheating a bit.

Rusper the race was on and Sylv, Paul H and myself managed to break away and hold it till the DC. Sylv is very fast up the hills and Paul is getting back into shape for the racing season.

Stu couldn't stand the heat so got out the kitchen early(he's human after all) and Marek and Ray caught back up for a smooth thru n off to Charlwood, for the last 20 mins Marek was reluctant to take his turns then sling shotted his was past us for the sprint win, Cancellera stylee.

Back via box hill there was about a dozzen of us, it split into two groups by Russ Hill where I gave Michelle a suprised push up the hill then shot ahead to the fast boys.

We kept it pinned to box then someone suggested lets do it in 53,12 so thats what we did, it was pretty hard and we all had to stand up honking from side to side like a bunch of Penguins, it was still a pretty fast ascent even though.

Once up the to I shot back down for another go and rode back up with Michelle and Brian.

Back down in Coulsdon picked up the Coffee Club Crew for a relaxed ride back to Coydon.

Good hard ride, great weather, super company, Top ClubRun.

[Stu Merckx Man]

i was feeling awful in the morning. my legs just wernt moving and i couldnt get my heart rate above about 80%.

as we got to the drag just before rusper i let the others come passed me and i went to the cafe alone.

i was feeling so bad i contemplated going back the quick way, but when the rest of the training group came into the cafe, i quickely decided i was going to go back over box hill with them.

after about 10 minutes i was feeling 100X better than in the morning, but still not back to my usual self.

box hill was great fun, sylv, paul, george and myself managed to pull away from the others despite our big gearing. george looked extremely funny and i was laughing most of the way up under my breath. we passed a few people, and i turned round to see their faces and they all looked rather perplexed. we all had a cadence of about 30, and were weaving all over the road, and yet we were going up at a fair old pace, around 14mph. it was really good fun, but hard work on the hands and arms more than anything. as we neared the top paul looked like he was about to drop off, so i came passed him and onto georges wheel. at the last hair pin sylv pulled beside george and they started to try and sprint for the top. i suddenly realised i had enough left for a sprint, and i managed to edge my way passed them both and take a victory of 10m or so.

fast ride back to coulsdon, i was now feeling completely back to normal. as we got to chipstead sylv and myself were out alone having dropped the others some how. we went hard to coulsdon, where sylv waited for the others and i turned off up how lane to get in an 8 mile loop of chipstead to make up for my lackings of the morning. i did it as hard as i could, and got home completely cooked, but in a good way

the only thing i can think of that would make me feel so bad for most of a ride is that im fatigued or something, so im going to take a whole week off!

but ill be back next week recovered, and faster

stu

It was supposed to be a training group ride for me, but near the M23 slip Ray shouted that my toolkit had fallen off (thanks Ray) so I doubled back to recover it. With such a nasty headwind, not a day to be caught by yourself trying to catch up a quick group. I had a good try though before waiting for the 19s.

Today was a great day for everyone who wanted to try moving up a group. With the headwind all the way, those established group members got a good workout on the front, whilst those newbies got to tuck in behind. Hope you all challenged yourselves.

Good through and off with a lovely tailwind before Adam once more showed everyone a clean pair of heels in the sprint.

A big queue at the cafe before heading North with the Box Hill group (for the 1st time). Stu assured Michelle that pace was pretty easy up until the hill itself, but that was a complete fallacy. More like training group pace. Great fun.

[quote="George"]... then someone suggested lets do it in 53,12 ...

[quote="Stu Merckx Man"]i was feeling awful in the morning. my legs just wernt moving and i couldnt get my heart rate above about 80%.

the only thing i can think of that would make me feel so bad for most of a ride is that im fatigued or something, so im going to take a whole week off!

[Robh]

[quote="Stu Merckx Man"]i was feeling awful in the morning. my legs just wernt moving and i couldnt get my heart rate above about 80%.

after about 10 minutes i was feeling 100X better than in the morning, but still not back to my usual self.

the only thing i can think of that would make me feel so bad for most of a ride is that im fatigued or something, so im going to take a whole week off!

but ill be back next week recovered, and faster

stu

[Hal]

A good run out today. The headwind meant that when in the group things were nice and easy and when you went out on the front it was a real wake up call.

Back via box hill and simon and I had a real struggle to bridge a gap of about 100m to the lead group but it was worth the effort and we go sucked along to the bottom of box hill where we would watch the penguins.

Loverly.

H

[Sylv]

What a great ride today! Sorry if I put some off by posting it was going to rain - it stayed dry and warm enough for shorts and light long-sleeve jersey.

I must be getting stronger, I broke a chain for the first time ever . From the start of the ride I kept hearing that clicking noise every two or three pedal revolutions, but couldn’t work out what it was – obviously it couldn’t be the pedals, or the cranks. To add to my confusion my shoes have those tiny bolts that are meant to tell you exactly where to position your Look cleats when you replace them, but the bloke at Cyclefit didn’t tighten them after fitting my cleats, and I keep forgetting to do it – so it makes that same clicking noise every pedal turn.

Anyway it took me 2.5 hours to realise what it was – after Box Hill I could feel the chain wasn’t turning properly through the rear mech, so at the lights I looked and the KMC quick link had split open and was poking outwards. I pushed it back and carried on – if Box Hill on the 53*12 hadn’t snapped it, it would hold on until I got home!

Felt way better than last week, when I wake up before my alarm rings I know I’m going to be ok for the day! Which didn’t prevent me from getting dropped just before the M23 (that horrible drag before we go under the bridge), I had taken a turn at the front and foolishly let George Paul and Stu (I think) gain a few meters on me, thinking I’d catch up on the downhill – but they hammered it and I couldn’t get back on them, thankfully they eased up a bit after the climb.

On the ups and downs I always seem to feel weak, and use attack as the best defense – hammer it out of the saddle, and hope no-one else will bother to come up front and increase the speed – somehow it always seem to work, well not this week as George came past and got to the top of the last bump first. He then took some really strong turns at the front into the wind, there were bits on the flats when I was leading and managing only 33km/h, then George would come up front and it would jump to 36.

I just love those moments when after taking a hard turn at the front, someone comes past way faster than you are, and you just know that you have to give everything to get onto their wheel, you know you’ll be ok if you do, but otherwise you’ll get dropped – there were a few of those for me today.

For the Charlwood sprint I thought that Marek was gentlemanly going to ease off just before the sign, so I hammered it as he was only about 15 meters ahead, but to no avail.

I think it was me who suggested the 53*12 Box Hill, it wasn’t as bad as I thought (George was on 53*11 wasn’t he?) but we did look like a bunch of drunk cyclists weaving from side to side of the road. I let George Paul and Stu get away thinking they were going too fast from the start, and too right by the first hairpin I’d caught them up. I went past George in what seemed the slowest overtaking ever, but I really thought I’d had them at that point. But no they all kept up and by the second hairpin I let George and Paul go past. There was a comical moment when George thought he could sit down, but promptly got out of the saddle again straight away. I think Paul managed it though.

Good fast ride back, Stu and I got away through the posh houses detour, and I let Stu do a bit more work as I knew he was just about to turn off home (that and I couldn’t get past him anyway).

Really looking forward to the upcoming road racing season, we’ve got a good 2nd/3rd Cat team and it will be interesting to do some team work and see what it leads us too.

[Marek]

I had not been too well over the last past of the week, but one of my mates had come over especially to ride the clubrun. Well, I left him with the 17s and blasted off with the training group.

Bliming tough ride today, every time the strong guys, Paul, Sylv and George went to the front the speed picked up, I was dreading the ever changing front man as the pace would pick up for a little bit and I was hanging on for dear life.

Got dropped on the Reigate steps and in Rusper but thankfully the group waited for me at the dual carriageway for the thru and off. Did my bit on the dual carriageway, but was feeling pretty empty after the Ifield turn off towards Charlwood so sat in.

As we approached the sprint I thought I would do the gentlemanly thing and come to the front and give the guys a fast lead out. Unfortunately they were all so cooked from doing all the work that I dropped them and took the line with ease, quite amusing really (for me anyway).

Good chat in the cafe with George keen to talk about his time trial escapades for the coming season and the rest of us keen to ignore him. Then I went back with a largish group towards Merstham and turned off with my mate back to East Grinstead.

My mate lives in France and he enjoyed the ride so much that he said it was almost worth flying over from France every Saturday to do the clubrun, a ringing endorsement.

Cheers

Marek....

[Snoop Doug]

[quote="Seanieh_PengeDaddy©"]Bloody good effort today snoop. You'll really make big leaps forward this year.

[mlocke]

Going out with Andrew on Sunday (today) so I thought that I would take it easy and sit in with the 18's to conserve some energy and absolutely not kill myself on the way home.

Nothing really happened in our groups that's worth mentioning - phil had some huge turns on the front and by the sprint it was the aforementioned, Chris and myself. Chris lead us out and then Phil shot past. Timing things to perfection I came round Phil before the line and I thought I had it. Then out of nowhere Chris was by my side but I think I nicked it by less than an inch.

Best sprint I have been involved in to date!!

Coming back Monty mentioned that we were cruising at 23mph but it felt like we were pootling along at 15 or so - it was so easy.

Good ride despite the wind and i'm glad the forecasted rain didn't materialise.

Not out next saturday as am doing the ashdown on Sunday

[Michelle]

Big thanks to Adam for waiting and giving me a wheel up one of the hills. Very good group management -looking after those struggling etc. (although did manage to lose Snoop so not that good). Although to be fair, if I ever do make it to be any kind of good sprinter, just cos you are group captain does not mean you are automatically allowed to take the sprint.

Not quite as hard as the last time I went out with the 19's. Was nice to ride behind my other half, am used to wheel sucking with Keith, its a very nice view!! and one that I am used to.

God only knows why Keith and I decided to go to Box Hill, nearly gave up when traveling up the first hill, only to be shocked by George's hand on my ar*e - must have spurred me on to new efforts!!!

Pretty bluudy pooped at the top of the Box Hill though, and lumpy on the way back, can't believe I did all this the day before Womens' Race Training at Hillingdon. Complained all the way back and creaked around the house for the rest of the afternoon, after spending 18 hours getting the muck off the bike.

Still, must be good for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[-Adam-]

No problem Michelle. Yes I did feel a bit guilty about losing Snoop, though he seemed to enjoy his quick run in and bacon sandwich more than he might have enjoyed the rest of our ride But fair play to him for making the step up, an example to all. And yes, I accept, with the benefit of hindsight, that my comment relating staying with the group, to riding the Bec Hill Climb over and over, was perhaps not the best piece of motivational advice I will ever give!

Actually I was trying to lead you out for the sprint, so you could beat Keith, but I looked round and you'd vanished. So I beat him for you

Overall I did think the group was very functional, everyone did at least one turn. With the stronger riders doing the rest. The thru'n'off on the dual carriage way was one of the best I've done in a long time on the club run. Smooth, but actually quite fast. Before that we were just under 19mph, by the cafe, we were up to just under 20mph. Didn't feel like we had to make to much effort to raise it either.

Had fun on the normal way back, somebody (sorry I'm not sure your name) sort of attacked me on the church climb, so from then on I was on a mission to be the first man to Reggalino's. Where not queueing or waiting for your coffee is quite nice.