Club Run 12th Jan

[Michelle]

Told you there was black ice around!

[img]http://i16.tinypic.com/8boheet.jpg[/img]

Ouch.

I now have a lump on my thigh which will spoil the lines of my dress tonight

[Andrew G]

Hope you're okay, looks like it'll sting a bit.

[Keith]

I'm sure you'll all be very relieved to hear that the was no damage done to Michelle's bike in the fall.

[Keith]

Yep, I've taught her well - Last year I managed a 60km/h downhill crash that involved a casualty visit but only ground the tops off the STI levers on my bike. Skin heals, bikes don't!

[Dombo]

Looks exactly like my leg. Hit black ice this morning coming down from Netherne to join the CR, luckily no other traffic.
Scraped nice new pedals, QR on new wheels also scuffed, plus broke those two stupid little caps on top of my shimano STI levers - £7.99 EACH to replace!!
Next time I'm getting a bike with Campag!

Went straight home. Hope you all had a good CR and got back safely.

[Robh]

Your not the only one Michelle, I was telling Keith this morning after I had just left my house in Crawley @ 8am I was slipping on black ice after a few mins on the bike.

Very slight grazes to the left thigh ands slightly scuffed STI shifter.

Rob

[Michelle]

ooooh!

Tough luck both of you. Expensive, falling on black ice.

3 down - any more tales of woe out there?

I did think that I ought to have writtten 'messy, eh! A bit like the discipline in the 18's group today'.

Thats all I have to report on the 18's club run, except that my legs didn't have it in them for the sprint, but I didn't come last which is always good. And that I didn't recognise Phil in the cafe even though he had been riding in the 18's with me.

Doubtless won't recognise him tonight either!

[Jon C C on a Bianchi]

returning home from the CR. Linkfield Street fast down hill towards the roundabout at Redhill. Blue transit pulls out from Oakhill Road right across the road in front of me!

Nowhere to go.

shouted, braked, clipped-out all at once. bike twitched and I went right over the handle bars!

wham!

bit shaken up but got away with it. elbow bruised and grazed, few scratches, bike OKish - brake hood bent and back wheel out of true.

sorry mate, didn't see ya.

at least he came back to see how I was.

thanks to North East Paul for picking me up riding back with me and another rider not sure if he's was an ACCer who helped me with the back wheel.

[Sylv]

Bad luck all, as the temperature quickly rose to positive numbers after 8am.

Me, it was just my ego that got bruised, when I had to let the rest of the training group go without me on the dual carriageway ...

One thing I should've known is that, there's no point going out with Stu, Paul H, Marek and George if you're not feeling 100%

Oh well I'm sure I can out-drink Stu at least tonite ...

[Antloony]

[quote="Michelle"]I did think that I ought to have writtten 'messy, eh! A bit like the discipline in the 18's group today'.

[Alan M]

Tough luck Michelle - hopefully it will have healed by next week.

I think the 18s were a bit disorganised partly because there were some stronger riders wanting to increase the pace. No bad thing, but generally if you ping off the front a bit, for example on a hill, it is the front rider's responsibility to help the group come back together by easing the pace a little, rather than expect those behind to up the pace, particularly for winter rides. Our average was 18.5 so OK there. maybe a little more communication was needed.

I for one felt a bit nervous of the conditions and having had a couple a falls last year my main training goal is to avoid injury. It was fairly wet and there was a lot of glare and a couple of murderous drivers unnerved me so I noticed myself leaving gaps a practice that I criticize in others, so me culpa!

I think the dynamics of a good and safe ride are fairly fragile anyway but at least it was good humoured and nobody got hurt.

[mlocke]

I decided to go with the 18's and soon realised that I didn't feel quite as strong as last week.

I didn't think that the 18's were that ragged and we did 18.3 according to my computer from CSS to Charlwood.

On the way back was chatting to Pete for a bit before once again riding the last 10 miles or so over Merstham and Wallington with Brian. This week he must have been in a rush as I was in agony hanging onto his week and looking back I can see that the speed for the last 10 miles rarely fell below 20mph and spent a considerable time around the 30 mark which meant an average from the cafe to home of 18.8 for me.

Good ride and on the only decent day of the week in terms of the weather.

[Toks]

Great to be back At 8am the plan was to join the training group bro's; however by the time I got to Elephant and Castle - twenty mins ride time from from Highbury - it was clear I needed a plan B. Hardish efforts in cold weather and ex asmatics like myself don't tend to go too well together. By the time I cruised into CS an hour later my mind was made up.

Ian. M gave me a heads up on my arrival; so with such exposure i couldn't sneak on to the back of any group unnoticed...I decided to come clean and tell the TG boys it couldn't join them.

Hal led out a group of approx fifteen of us in the 19's and away we went. We managed to stay organised and together despite lots of strong riders - Adam, Keith, Hal, Simon, two Neils, RobH, and various others. Just before Reigate we swept up Mr Tunnel , white shorts n'all. With lots of people willing to take turns on the front the pace was good. I don't think anyone got dropped. In fact anyone lacking watts in the threshold dept could easily have sat on. At the dual carriage way we picked up a rather dejected looking Sylvain who'd obviously bid the TG group farewell.
The thru and off was very steady but certainly not taxing. However with such a large group confusion reigned on the last roundabout and some of us turned the wrong way

One big effort and the slowing of the main group mean't that we were all soon back on. Naturally the pace rose as the Charlwood sign approached; there were clearly too many bodies in the mix for a last minute flyer so it was perfect for a sprinter. When Adam switched into "extra watts please!" mode and transported himself 15 metres in front of everyone else there were no surprises. The remaining two podium spots i believe went to Sylv and Keith. A message to myself - remember to sprint mate you're not Fabian Cancellara

Cheese on toast, lots of pleasantries, good banter at the cafe then slightly warmer weather and assurances that they would take it steady and I decided to join the TG (George and Stu) boys on a trip to Surrey's own Alpe D'uez. The ride to Box Hill was brisk but again not overly taxing. Lesson's learnt from the Ajay's school of wheel sucking mean't that the best spot in a fast moving train is ideally not directly behind Stu or George. Indeed myself and Neil arranged things so that when I did take a turn I'd quickly find a place 4 or 5 places back in front of his wheel.

By the time we swung off the A25 near Dorking the race antics began. Nobody seemed to want to lead up to the beginning of the BH climb. Eventually we all lined up behind Hal and it was game on. George engaged big gears stomped on the pedals and quickly bought himself 30-40 metres. Stu and PaulH began to duke it out just behind the big fella and I stayed conservatively some metres back. Behind me Hal suffering with a cold and not quite in TOBM form signed off for an at-your-own-pace-ride and behind him Neil clearly didn't fancy a VO2 max workout at all.

So the six minute+ hilly time trial was in full swing. After a few minutes I still needed 30 metres if realistically I was to catch up with Stu and Paul. Too late Stu, unimpressed with the Gradient Master's, shirking his turn's jumped away. I did a Jan Ulrich (thats the move he used to do when he was absolutely on the limit and tried to climb out of the saddle. It usually lasted two revoultions before he sat down and accepted that the American bloke up ahead was just too strong)

Having recovered from my clumsy looking honking effort I settled down again. Then on the fairly long straight bit I made a serious bid to close the gap between myself and Paul. After a short while the 20 metre gap looked bridgable. Just after the final hairpin a last anaerobic effort and I'd got his wheel. I watched as he inevitably changed up a couple of gears to get away. I matched his gear changed and burnt my last match. 3rd spot overall and Yes I'd won the battle of the oldies.

The ride back was fast and fun and the whole club run was topped off nicely by the excellent ACC Dinner in the evening

[kieran]

I thought I heard your voice in the cafe Toks, as usual I turned up late, passed a few groups and caught one group just after the turn off to Charlwood, they then turned off so as to miss the dual carriageway but I continued on by myself so when I got to the cafe I was last in a long long queue(some one counted 75 bikes outside the cafe). So as I had brought enough food with me I just filled up my bottle with water and decided to give the cafe a skip (as a few others at the end of the queue decided as well). So off I went solo home via boxhill, I was constantly expecting the training group to come whizzing past me at any time but I guess the cafe had tempted them to stay a while so they never did catch me. I saw Adam as he headed home from the cafe at Coulsdon then made my way home to arrive back by 13:45. So about 4 hours 40min solo ride, not my best time for the extended club run, so I think I need to do a bit more prior to racing.

[Toks]

Oi! what happened the club run reports?