ToSH 15/04/06 Feedback

[Paul H]

Hi, I am the guy in orange with the bent Principia.

Thanks Huw for organising a great day - it was the longest time I've spent on a saddle. I think the hardest bit of the ride for me was trying to hang onto Marek & Co going back into Coulsdon - unfortunately there were not any hills to slow him down.

Cheers

Paul

[kieran]

Hi all, finally got the energy to write my bit. Arrived back home just around 5 after 120 miles, I had to do a shop raid on the way back and scoffed down 2 bars and a smoothie to get me home. great ride Huw, seemed harder/faster than the TOSH I did last year with ACC, although it might have been my choice of steed that made the difference. Must admit I was gutted that I had to walk the last bit up the 21% but didn't feel too bad when I saw Kevin ( I'm feeling bad!) also walking up part of it. Top marks to you Paul on your longest effort in the saddle, I do seem to remember you also always being very strong in the club runs, tearing up box hill etc? Thanks to the guys setting the pace and waiting for us slower riders, especially later in the day and after the hills.

As I said to Toks, next time some commentry would be nice, a bit of local history on the hills and villages we pass through

Also I suggest a change of name to the ROSH, R standing for Race.

Again thanks Huw for the ride, I think I might need to put in some more quality time prior to the bala ride.

[Tamar Collis]

From Paul Tunnell:
I took a few shortcuts to miss out a couple of climbs, but this enabled me to ride with lead group at their pace for the majority of the mileage - only the steep hills that distanced me, and so enjoy the ride rather than struggle along by myself. Robbie was really grateful for the respite as well.
Grateful thanks to Huw for the organisation (even if the cafe is expensive)

[Toks]

Trying to analyse your performance in the 'Surrey hills tour isn't that simple. Your motivation, nutritional intake and hydration would all obviously be important; and towards the later stages the effects of neurological and muscular fatigue can't be dismissed either. But assuming and you were safe from injury and mechanicals, what essentially determined 'how well you did' boils down to basic exercise physiology. 1. The power of your aerobic engine - VO2max (the amount of oxygen your exercising muscles managed to gobbled up per minute). 2. How effectively your body coped with the slow but steadily increasing amounts of blood Lactate - Lactate Threshold. Which incidently correlates strongly with the percentage of VO2 max power you were able to sustain throughout the ride.


Once our big yellow ACC train hit the first significant climb it became a simple case of mathematics: high versus lows. The ACC riders with bigger engines/higher thresholds continued to surge up the climb; but despite working just as hard, those riders with lower thresholds, smaller or perhaps less efficient engines soon began to fall behind. In cycling jargon we talk about one rider being 'stronger' than the other as if it really is a "strength (the maximum amount of force applied by an exercising muscle) issue.

Well most of the research suggests strength is not the deciding factor when it comes to riding your bike fast. Contrary to what you may think riding a bike requires fairly low to moderate strength. As such, the strength component can be met by most healthy adults. Weight training to improve bike strength only appears to be successful if you hardly ride your bike at all or are planning to be a track sprinter/kilo rider. If you've seen my legs you surely can't think its about strength in real terms. In a 'leg press' competition I'm sure I'd be beaten by most of the addiscombe peleton.

There's no doubt that how much you weigh becomes a factor on hilly rides. But with UK's short sharp ~ 4 minute hills its not as significant as you may think. In the 80 kilos + crew we had Peter, Marek, Tim and George - all of who climbed well and remained in the front group. However, they obviously needed to compensate with greater power outputs to match the 72kilos and below possee - Huw, Matt, Kevin, Keiran, myself and others.

In the front group myself, Matt and Paul led over most of the climbs before lunch time. Essentially the group stayed in contact - as is de regeur on these rides we waited a few seconds for everyone to reconvene at the top of the climbs.

For everyone of us doing the Surrey Hills ride a heart rate monitor would have shown us all climbing at 85-95% of our maximums. The very effortless seated climbing style of H. Williams probably had him at the lower end of the scale where else less fit guys or I-wanna-be-at-the-front-nutters-like-myself would've been at the higher end. But this wouldn't strictly be true. Matt (this years King of the Mountains) remained comfortably at the front on the flat and the climbs. This suggests he probabaly had the biggest and most efficient aerobic engine. Indeed, this is born out by the fact that he's an ex 1st cat racer, who'll also be running the london marathan next weekend. In addition, being one of the lighter guys, power to weight ratio would also have been in his favour. A high Lactate Threshold and I'm sure good VO2 max numbers meant that Matt could stay at the front of the group and sprint back to the front even when he had mechanicals. I hate him! There is also a genetic component to such impressive fitness levels so it would be interesting to know if Matt has sporty parents

For the the hardest climb of the day, Winterfold 21%, I took the av speed of the front three: Marek, myself and Pauls and put some estimate figures into analytical cyclings power chart. It made interesting reading! Roughly Marek +bike would be about 94kilos, myself + bike would be about 82kilos and we were climbing at roughly 11km/ph. Mareks wattage topped out at 610watts and mine was just over 500watts. Paul who impressively made it to the top first was probably also close to 500watts.

In sounds great when you think that Boardmans hour record averaged 460w and Armstrongs 2004 A'Duez win averaged 460ish watts. Well, No I'm sad to say we're not world beaters! We only had to maintain that power output for a few minutes and we were way above our thresholds; in my own case I was probably deeply anerobic (without oxygen). However L.A. and C.B. would have been riding their 38mins and 60min respectively at threshold level.

So finally, why did I get dropped on my favourite hill? Er well, yours truly El Stupido thought that he could complete TOSH on two banannas, three kellogs fruit bars and some PSPP2 drink!. Der???!!!

So here are my awards to my TOSH riding buddies

Most Aesthetic Climbing Style - Huw Williams

Strongest Rider Overall - Matt

Most impressive Attack & Then Go on to Make it to the Top first - Paul, on Winterfold

Best Honker - Paul Tunnel

King of The Mountains - Matt

Most impressive Attack & Then Not Go On To make It to The Top First - Kevin, on Cobbled Climb

How The Hell Did You Make To The End - Keiran

Prince of The Cobbled Climb - Me

Most Improved Climbing Performance - Tim

Most impressive display of Power on a Climb - Marek, on WinterFold

But you were looking so Strong! - Kevin

Best attitude throughout the ride! - George

Mastering The Pain - Peter

Your Da Man - Huw

[huw williams]

An excellent analysis Dr Toks - and in the case of my heart rate on the climbs bang on the nose.

I was indeed riding at the lower end of my FS or threshold zone (around 170bpm) for a very specific reason - I know that I can climb at that rate all day long without blowing up and getting jelly-legged. An essential factor in quick Sportive riding is that you have to have a very accurate understanding of how hard you can go and for how long. I'm sure you will remember Richard Hallett's performance in the Dragon Ride last year - he tried to go at your pace and imploded, the consequence being that despite being a much stronger rider than me, I beat him by almost 20 minutes.

Of course this approach won't get me up hills as quickly as guys who attack the hills, but I can depend on surviving the ride and getting up the later hills in relatively good shape and still be able to make chase-down efforts on the flats towards the end when Marek gets tasty. And so it proved.

Contrast that to our Wednesday night rides which are much shorter with specific hill intervals. Attacking hills at somewhere in the region of 180+bpm gives me only a few intervals before the doors blow off. But that's ok because the ride is only 2 hours long.

The nutrirional comparison is fascinating as I ate less than you.
1 Go bar. A bottle and a half of PSP22, a piece of chocolate cake and a couple of salty biscuits (to prevent the onset of cramp) and that was it. Probably because you were repeatedly going over your threshold by attacking hills and I wasn't, you needed a higher fuel intake?

All interesting and usefull info and I think the bottom line is there's a lot of us in pretty good shape at the moment, and it's only april after all.

[Toks]

[quote]a lot of us in pretty good shape at the moment, and it's only april after all.

[Toks]

[quote]a lot of us in pretty good shape at the moment, and it's only april after all.

[Toks]

[quote]a lot of us in pretty good shape at the moment, and it's only april after all.