Its lucky you live in Croydon...

[huw williams]

I never thought I'd hear that but I did on saturday...

4 hours into a mind-numbing solo ride in that viscious headwind I was going up Box Hill when I spotted 2 decent looking riders up in the distance.

Despite the miserly pace which my Cycleops was insisting I stuck to I caught them up at the first hairpin. They were clearly doing short turns on the front into the wind and when they were aware that I was on the back one of them looked round and said "come on mate, do your turn"

"No problem" I said and went through to do my share but within 50 yards I'd droppped the pair of them which seemed odd cos they were a very tasty looking pair. I slowed up til they got back on and we got chatting

They were a pair of 1st cats from North of London training for the Paris-Roubaix sportive. Their interesting approach to preparing for this event was to ride through London to Box Hill and tear up it repeatedly 'til they got too knackered to do any more, then have a cup of tea at the top and ride home through London again.

"There's no real hills North of London" they explained "we ride around Hertfordshire but its rubbish, so we come down here, but we don't know our way round so we do reps on Box Hill."

Apparently I'd come upon them on rep number 12 which explains why they were so slow - they were knackered and about to call it a day at the cafe at the top - "we go as hard as we can first time up" they explained "then we do as many as we can trying to hold it at about 90%

One can only imagine what 12 times up Box Hill at 90% of max must feel like from a mental point of view as much as physical, so I suggested they might find it more interesting on some of the various routes which the club run uses along with the Surrey Hills and Hilly 50 courses. "You're lucky you live in Croydon if you got all that on your doorstep" they commented.

So there you go - we're lucky we live in Croydon

[Andrew G]

Location, location, location the Norf Lunduner says.

Fair enough if you want to live in a concrete jungle I suppose.

You should have taken them over the road and said now they'd finished Box Hill they could do Ranmore 12 times.

[Sylv]

[quote]Its lucky you live in Croydon...

[kieran]

12 times up box hill! I 've only done 5 once and ususally 3 is my max.

If I do it 12 times regularly will I become a 1st cat?

[adrian]

What's wrong with the Chilterns? I used to go out with a girl from Tring (insert your own limerick here) and found the surrounding area to be cracking cycling country - all the way over to Henley.

Not that that's a reason to lose the plot and go nawf of the river

[huw williams]

Tony? You out there - you do intervals up there don't you?

John Ibbotson used to do repeats up there at ridicullous speed behind his girlfriend setting the tempo in a car

[Andrew G]

Pic from the front page of the CroydonCycleWorks website.

If you're familiar with Blackadder the Third then I'm sure you'll agree it looks like the bloke in the middle is about to give a speech.

[img]http://www.croydoncycleworks.com/UserFiles/Image/Tourmelet%20resized.jpg[/img]
Maybe he suffered chaffing on the climb.

[huw williams]

[quote="kieran"] If I do it 12 times regularly will I become a 1st cat?

[Jon H]

Perhaps you should have pointed out to them that Paris-Roubaix is flat.

[huw williams]

[quote="Jon Hemming"]Perhaps you should have pointed out to them that Paris-Roubaix is flat.

[Amy]

couldn't you have invited them to come on the Hilly 50?

[quote="huw williams"][quote="Jon Hemming"]Perhaps you should have pointed out to them that Paris-Roubaix is flat.

[Colin.Steadman]

There was a 3rd cat who became a 2nd cat pretty quickly who used to ride up Box hill in the winter doing reps. Not sure how many he used to do, but he used to ride up on the 53x12 each time.

I think there are lots of areas north of London where there are decent hills.
There's a lovely area near Essenden where the North Road Hard Riders TT goes that is called Little Switzerland, for obvious reasons. Very very hilly .

[Tony]

The late John Ibbo used to ride up Box in 53-11 on a fairly frequent basis. He was no slouch even in that gear. Apparently it helped develop a more smooth pedaling action. He would sometimes challenge comparatively useless riders such as myself to a race to the top - with the other rider having free use of all their gears.

Of course, it wasn't that difficult to beat him - simply sit on his wheel all the way up and then sprint past with 20m to go.

Maybe next time the clubrun goes up Box Hill everyone has to use 53-11?

[Stu Merckx Man]

tony that sounds like it could be a laugh im up for it, as long as your not joking though