club ride......'THE MAN IN GREEN'......

[Stu Merckx Man]

good training ride today.

set off at a good pace joined by a man in green, seamed kind of modest, dint blow his own horn.

anyways, there we were cycling along, and i have to say he took his fair share at the front and always pushed the pace.

comming up over newdigate he made a big push up the hill heading towards rusper, we all just managed to stick to his wheel.

he held the front all the way past the golf club, which is where i had to drop back from behind him to the back because he was so fast!

just before rusper i had it ! had to drop off and go on, on my own, kept a good pace though.....

i felt very ashamed with myself ..... BUT i was pleased to hear he tore the field apart and i was not the only one to be dropped, i think the only person left with him at the end was haydon.

he was going to go back via box hill with us, but by the grace of god he had a puncture in charlswood! and....unfortunatly.... he didnt manage to come back with us....

haydon won the climb...i tride to stick with him, sylvain etc etc...but couldnt so i rode my own race and took a steady 13mph, i finished just behind hew.

good ride back when some plonker in a merc pulled out in front of me just after the fat round about bit when i was making a break!!! ....a few of the lads let their feelings be known when we caught up with him by the kingswood arms pub(whata *&$&*#!!!) personally i gave him the stair

average speed when i got home 20.8

stuart....

[Dr Frigo]

The "man is green" was John (forgot surname), who said he'd not been on our clubrun for about a year, but who singlehandedly killed our training group of five, as told by Stuart, as we approached Rusper - first Stuart, then me, then me again after the through-and-off for which we'd regrouped, and finally Paul on the lead-out to Charlwood.

The "man in blue" was Matthew, the only one of the group to manage to stay on John's wheel all the way to the Charlwood sign, and who (I think)was actually the first up the top of Box Hill, flying past Huw, Paul, Aodan and myself in the process.

The "man in baggy shorts on a singlespeed with rattling mudguards" was Aodan (who has now bettered Shakespeare in the number of different ways his name has been spelt), who first said he was only riding with our group until the first hill, but who proceeded to almost kill me on the second (after the right turn at the service station), stay with us for most of the first half of the ride, then attack at the bottom of Box Hill and drive me to 188bpm whilst trying, and failing, to catch him up.

I think I've never been so knackered after a clubrun - was barely hanging on on the last few miles

[Marek]

Damn, I missed it, that sounds like my kind of club run, perfect winter training.

Cheers

Marek...

[Andrew G]

Went with Ian M's group today. Clearly hadn't heard all of the intro at CSS so was a bit thrown when we took a right after the small sheltered climb (holes! holes! holes! on the left). Followed the Routemaster and had a very enjoyable ride through lots of new, to me, lanes with a few short hills enroute. Made for a nice change to see some new sights yet still be on a Saturday CR with fellow agreeables.

Merstham return and still feeling good so gave a decent pull on the front, and then managed to grab a wheel when 5 or 6 of the faster guys came past to be able to recover and contribute again later.

A good morning

[Dr Frigo]

You can make up for it tomorow Marek.

I definitely haven't got the legs to go race at 9.30am ...

[Matthew Ives]

I have to confess that Aiden/Aoden (baggy shorts/beard man) pipped me in the sprint at the top of Box hill and that the only reason I could stay on John's wheel was cos i did absolutely no work in the group leading up to the dual carriageway.

Not quite sure why I had such good legs today. Perhaps cos I haven't been riding much. Was just listening to that Greg lemond mp3 that marco linked to in another thread. He was saying that most riders tend to over train and do far too many miles and that it's probably better to be a bit undertrained than over trained.

Anyway, this John guy was something else! Litterally rode people off his wheel on the flat. I hate to think what he'd have done to us up box hill cos he's a skinny bloke.

Well done to whoever it was that punctured his tyre at the cafe meaning that he couldn't go with the Box Hill group

[Stu Merckx Man]

oh sorry about the names !!


stuart...

[higg]

Good club run alright. Given that my main bike has started creaking worringly after coming off the plane last week, I thought I'd experiment with taking my commuting bike out on the club ride (experiment because it only has one gear).

I had intended to go with the 17 group but at the last minute thought I'd join the training group for the drag up the A23 and then wait for a more reasonable group for the rest of the ride. As it turned out I was able to hunch down and spin madly to keep with the group down the hill in Merstsham.

From there I thought why not try the next hill. Only having one gear meant I didn't have much choice about speed and just tried to keep the pedals turning. Probably even ended up quicker than normal. Stuck with the group through Reigat but after a few miles I thought enough is enough and turned around to pick up the group behind. From the sound of the reports above it's a good thing I did.

The remainder of the ride to Charlwood was without incident apart from a some frantic spinning just before the sprint. Thanks to Brian for picking up the puncture repair kit which jumped out of my pocket on the run-in. I guess it proved that it was possible to do the club run on one gear, just stay away from the training group.

For those of you who have an interest in such things I was on 39x16 which, if my calcs are right, is about 67".

I did have a freewheel which was put to good use on the downhills and also on the flat where I found I was able to spin for a few secs then freewheel which meant I didn't blow up completely.

I think I would need longer gear using a fixed to give me a better chance of staying in touch on the downhills (but obviously this could lead to a few problems on the ups). But then in a fixed only group this would be less of an issue.

As a final note, I rang Geoffrey Butlers this afternoon and by some stroke of luck, they had a new fork on sale and the mechanic was able to fit it straightaway to my main bike, well done GBs.

[huw williams]

Great riding today - extended run to the cafe through the rolling lanes around Brockham where Pete Munden and I did a few attacks on the slopes to keep the average speed around the 18mph mark.

Somehow found ourselves going down Partridge after a much longer ride than normal so I went for the sprint from the bottom of the uphill about 2 miles before the sign - we managed to hold 20mph+ all the way up the climb which I think dragged the sprint out of the sprinters cos nobody came through at the sign.

Ride back was awesome - a great tempo through the lanes with the training group setting a brisk pace, a few of the very promising juniors were struggling a bit to hang on when the speed ratcheted up. Stupidly I did a big turn on the front on the drags before the pre-box-hill climb so by the time we got on the lower slopes of Box I was cramping a bit. As usual Aioden set the pace up Box, with Sylv, Paul H and Matt going on to contest the summit.

After regrouping and having a right laugh about Aioden's bike (Have you seen it? How fast would he be on a 17lb titanium comapred to that?) at the top, I can only describe the ride back to Kingswood and down Chipstead valley as Ballistic. It was like doing a race after a hard trainig ride. Sylvain led a single line out along the long straight before the two humps to the roundabout on the dual carriageway before Kingswood, Paul H luanched an attack on the middle section and I went with him, he set a dizzying 30mph over the top to the roundabout which set the tone for the rest of the ride back.

One by one the group got smaller and smaller until the final approach into Coulsdon. The speed relented to a miserly 26 past the shops so I thought I'd up it for the last mile and got on the front at 31mph. "I'm doing alright here" I thought, until I heard the familiar sound of gears finding the smallest cog on cassettes from somwhere behind me and suddeny Matt, Sylv and a couple of others burst through fast enough to open a gap even at that speed.

A quiet ride back through the traffic to Croydon, warming down at a paltry 18mph in the inner ring didn't even feel like we were pedalling.
Awesome riding chaps even though I'm too dead to get on the bike this morning

[Yohan]

..injured again!
badly sprained ankle playing football...darn..I'll stick to cycling...safer!

Sounds like another great day out in the CR....back in a couple of weeks me thinks

[Toks]

[quote]..injured again!
badly sprained ankle playing football...darn..I'll stick to cycling...safer!

[Roy Green]

I've been going on a number of the 1st Saturday runs in the easiest group since I joined about a year ago, and it's time to record just how enjoyable it's been. ACC has certainly given me a new lease of cycling life. Now 70, but under Lycra, crash helmet and wrap-round shades, who knows (or cares)?
Started in the 'Just For Fun' group, but a little way down A23, a largish 17s group came by. As I have somewhat rashly entered the Redmon 2-up next week with son Andrew, I thought I ought to try and stretch the ancient limbs a bit more. Fine on the flat or downhill, but the sustained efforts uphill had me yo-yoing a few times. Finally gave it best at the T-junction near Charlwood.
Wisdom kicked in for the return run, with the JFF group, my natural habitat, I reckon.
But thanks a million, Agreeables, for waking me up on the bike again.

[jon avery]

After missing the last four club runs i thought i should make the effort and set off in the large 17 group. Perfect weather though still nursing a hangover from the night before. Was good to see the Shadow back on the bike again, and hard luck to the new boy Dave who was looking forward to seeing the Hariquins only to get beaten by Sale.

[Brian Robinson]

Good day on Saturday. I've been a bit crap recently when it comes to the clubruns but a bit of sunshine usually does the trick. I think I went out with the 19s, we had a good run out to Charlwood via the dual carriageway, picking Aiden (sp? As a fellow irishman I shouldn't need a names dictionary) up on his singlespeed (and his puncture repair kit at the sprint). Sat outside the cafe basking in the sun and then joined the large non-boxhill group back to Coulsdon. Great run up through Merstham, I think Andrew Green dragged us up most of the way with someone else taking the final leg to the top. I was just hanging on but thought I'd put my head down once over the top until the legs gave up.....which they did not long after.

Not many better ways to spend an autumnal morning than out with the agreeables .

Bri

[John Czernobay]

Yeah and another great Saturday CR , well done to George on the tandem you did a great job up front in JFF with riders coming back with new road bikes. Excellent.

Roy, your Star , you should come along to the 15mph Team on the other Saturdays, your be fine. Good luck with the Redmon 2-up

Huw, if your at 18mph then I must be going backwards ; mind you there has been a lot more Cherry cake at Charlewood recently so something is happening.

See you all soon. John.



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