Saturday 28 April 2012

Preparing for Circle of Hope bike ride

I'm doing the Circle of Hope bike ride on Sunday 6th May, a charity bike ride in aid of Clatterbridge Hospital. I decided to do the 100 mile route, which seemed a good idea at the time. You can find out more about the bike ride at: http://www.circleofhopebikeride.org/.

To get in shape did a fairly hilly ride (last Sunday) out from Chester over "The Steps" to Minera and the down towards Llangollen, and then turned off the main road to go over The Garth up to Panorama Walk and then over World's End. At least it was all down hill to Chester after that. I felt a bit knackered before I set out, and the time wasn't great.



Also went out for a quick spin on Saturday 28th April - just out to Hope and back to Chester via Llay, and then out to Frodsham and back. At least that was a bit faster (average speed over 17 mph for around 40 miles)



Sunday 15 April 2012

Wrexham Fibrax Hilly 24 MIle Time Trial, 15th April 2012

The 2012 Wrexham Fibrax Hilly 24 mile time trial started about 0.5 mile before the Britannia Inn on the approach to the Horseshoe Pass. The route went over the Horseshoe Pass (where the riders were timed) and then down into Ruthin (via the Nant Y Garth road), and then back, to finish at the Ponderosa Cafe at the top of the Horseshoe Pass.
I have ridden over the Horseshoe Pass plenty of times, but usually have cycled 30 miles or so to get there, so this was a chance to get a reasonable time.
There is a long history behind the Wrexham hilly time trials which you can read about here.

In 2012 there were approx 65 riders entered, including Ryan Mullen and Andy Wilkinson who were the two main favourites.

I went off too fast, and went into the red zone halfway up the Horseshoe Pass and had to back off a bit. Once over the top, it was fairly fast into Ruthin although we had the wind against us. This turned out to be quite good since we had the wind behind us most of the way back.

Anyhow, ended up doing just over 1 hr 32 mins. Not great but at least I got around, and wasn't last. There were 7 of us entered from Chester Road Club, and three of us were around the same time (1 hr 31 min or 1 hr 32 min), so we should get plenty of points towards the West Cheshire Time Trials Cycling Association (WCTTCA) points competition. Details of ride from Strava below:



If you fancy doing this, look at a picture of the profile of the route below !!!


Incidentally, Ryan Mullen won and Andy Wilkinson was 2nd. Not sure who won the prime up the Horseshoe Pass. Results are here.

To prepare for this time trial, I did a fairly long hilly training ride on Wednesday (I had the week off because of the Easter school holidays) - see below:



Tuesday 10 April 2012

Chester Road Club Chain Gang

Tuesday 10th April saw the start of the 2012 Chester Road Club chain gangs. The idea is to ride as groups - on this occasion there was a "slow" group and a "fast" group. I was in the "slow" group and there were 6 of us led by Phil. We rode taking turns on the front and peeling off. After 5 minutes or so we got the hang of it and got into a good rhythym. We did two laps of the Saighton circuit, approximately 14 miles or so. The "slow" group did 40 mins and 9 seconds according to Gerry (who was timing us) and the "fast" group did about 38 minutes.

There was a good turn out of approx 12 riders and it ended up being a good work out - good preparation for the Wrexham hilly 24 coming up on Sunday 15th April.

Strava summary is below.

Sunday 8 April 2012

Rides up til 8th April

Did a 53 mile ride down from Chester over the Steps and then over the Horseshoe Pass and back to Chester (details below). Apparently I was 4th overall on "Puncture Alley" according to Strava. Also set my best time over the Horseshoe Pass (quite timely as I'm in the Wrexham Hilly 24 on Sunday 15th April which goes over the Horseshoe Pass). However my best time is still not great (25 mins or so).



Reasonably happy with this ride, as I also did a couple of short, reasonably fast rides in both of the days before, one of which is shown below: