THE DAVE LLOYD MEGA CHALLENGE (Midi version)

Sunday morning I awoke in north Wales to glorious weather and the daunting task of cycling the Dave Lloyd mega challenge as my last training event before the Etape.
Vary wary of how I would do on the big steep climbs, I set of conservatively to make sure that I could last the distance, achieve the goal of finishing and without injury and to enjoy the day.
The super lithe and speedy riders soon flew past and I settled into a sustainable pace for me. Climb after climb came and after 20 miles completed, I looked at the Garmin and was shocked to see it show over two hours had gone already and I started to doubt if I could maintain a 100 miles of this constant climbing.

Finally we reached the top and what should have been a time to recover, turned into a frightening buttock clenching 6 mile descent which when at the bottom, I was glad to get climbing again as my back, neck, arms and fingers were killing me after clinging on to the bike so tightly.

Luckily we then got a nice easier rolling section to the first feed stop at 45 miles, and after refuelling I felt OK again, then it started again climbing, climbing, climbing, but other than a savage section at 17% plus for what seemed like a mile, it was more even and enjoyable.

Another section of long downhill, which was enjoyable led us to the next feed station at 80 miles before we set off again to the stingers! A series of hard but short climbs which sapped the last energy from tired legs, before a nice 5 mile downhill to the start point at the local school.

But this challenge does not finish there, as the hardest climb is still to come, up Bwlch Pen Barras, a savage long steep climb of hideous proportions which make doing the Winnats pass seem very very easy by comparison.

A chequered flag greeted me at the top, where I was informed that I had to then cycle the 3 miles down the way I had just climbed to get back to the school!

Overall a course of 102 miles with 11000ft of climbing with a finish time of 9:09 and a ride time of 8:30hrs.
A hard hard challenge which hopefully will help me come the 18th July.

Norwich 100 sportive done, punctures! punctures! punctures!

Well another century ride completed and this was one that I tried as a dummy run for certain aspects of the Etape, well with regard to logistics anyway?
I travelled that day before, stayed in a hotel, took my bike in a bag and assembled it in the hotel, tried large and fast group riding,etc, etc.

First problem, I FORGOT MY WATER BOTTLES, oh no! what a crazy thing to do, I left them filled with my drinks in the fridge at home,and was unable to by any at night or on the morning of the event either, so resorted to buying 3 by 500ml still spring water bottles and trying to tip my spare drinks powders into the so small tops! and then I padded my bottle cages out with tissues from my hotel room, not pretty or that functional, by at least it did the job! And as luck would have it I found on the ride, a discarded bike drinks bottle, albeit, with a dodgy top valve, but I stopped, wiped it off and used it with my own drinks in for the duration of the race.

The Start went well and I soon ended up in a large group and did the first 40 miles in a smidgen over 2hours, so was really flying for me, and feeling comfortable in a massive group of about 60 riders, then I shipped my chain off the large ring and stopped to rectify, I had to work quite hard to make the junction (that came from the TV?) and then after getting back I punctured and had to stop to repair the rear tyres tube, which was caused by a shard of flint( as were hundreds and hundreds of other as well. Memo to self: carry more than one spare tube! and go away from co2 cartridges and get a small portable pump.

The compulsory 20 minute break came at 50 miles and low and behold as I left the refreshment stop, I linked up with the original group who had slimmed down a bit, but still worked really well together. we then had a cracking ride through to the end, with another puncture in the group, and a good downpour to test our waterproof bodies, but was constantly passing other riders and feeling like proper riders and not just out for a Sunday ride.

All in all a cracking day, although nothing to compare with the etape at only 3100ft of climbing the time of 5:36 was a smashing time and 45Min's faster than my last century only a few weeks ago, showing how much a group really can help.

The Dave Lloyd midi mega challenge should hopefully be the next sportive I do, and I know this will be a different kettle of fish with the goal of just surviving?

May stats.

I noticed this on Karen`s site( a fellow blogger who is also training for this year`s Etape) and it was interesting to see, just how close our training had been during the month of May, and it therefore gave me a bit of an uplift, as Karen had completed last year`s` Ventoux Etape, and she said that she felt in good shape for tackling this year`s Etape up to now.

14 activities
499 miles covered
33:32:27 time in the saddle
21,323ft of climbing
14.9 average speed
138 average heart rate
73 average pedal cadence
30,218 calories used

I would like to comment that, although slightly quicker than Karen, she did a fair bit more climbing than me, and my heart rate was higher than hers, and of the 30,218 calories used, I think that I must have eaten 45,000 calories worth of food!

Norwich 100 for me tomorrow, I will let you know how it goes.

E.tape du tour number recieved

At last my race number has been published, It is 2785 and I am thinking that is quite good? In my mind just into the top third, means that I am not at the front with the racing snakes, but I am in front of 6000 other cyclists, all trying their best to get up the mountains like me.
That is unless the numbers are set off in reverse!
Hmmm, I think I will try and investigate this some more?

another 5000ft climbing day completed.

Today was a change from the hilly sportive in Yorkshire as previously planned, a lot of circumstances made it not the right option for me this weekend, so I opted for a hilly ride out from home.
A super strong headwind for 26miles accompanied the hard climb up to the the top of the days route, along with a super slow average speed! which although hard, was at least better at the start of the day rather than at the end.
The next 45 miles was very rolling with climbs up to 21% but these tended to be short in length, but there was some nice longer climbs at 8-10% where I could sit in and think I was in France for a short while?
This part of the route was in Rutland and followed the route of the recent cicle sportive and had some cracking views over Abbeys, reservoirs and a 82 span viaduct, which made the riding very rewarding.
The last 14 miles was a decent/flat run all the way back home, with the benefit of a cracking tailwind pushing me, and the pace never really dropped below 20mph with the minimum of effort from my now tired body.
So after last weeks 100 miler this was good to get a good climbing route done without wrecking my body before next weekends 100 mile sportive in hilly Norfolk?

the first 100 miler in the bag.

Well I now have done my first ever one hundred mile bike ride, rode out early on Saturday morning, to do our local cycling clubs autumn sportive route, and added in another 25 miles to get up to the ton.
I rode with a friend for 65 miles until he had to head off for other commitments and then I carried on to the finish at home, the morning was misty which cleared after an hour, then it was glorious sunshine all the way.
The route was not flat and had just over 4000ft of climbing up to 18% on the biggest climb, and the cafe we planned to stop at 45 miles was closed when we got there,so had to ride another 15 miles, until I could find a shop and fill up my water bottles again, not so good.
I did tire over the last 20 miles in places that I did not expect, to like my core, so I ended up putting lots of weight onto my wrists.
So at the end a finishing time of 6 hours and 19 minutes was very pleasing although I have been starving all day today.
So onwards and upwards to the next long ride.

A spanner in the works?

Well the planned week off after the marathon, was then taken out of my hands by a very nasty cold, which because I was determined to train in the second week? turned into something nasty on my chest, which as I write is still being treated with medication!
But I have tried to do the best I can, and still got in a good 84 mile ride to watch the pro`s race at the Lincoln grand prix, which was awesome seeing how hard those guys worked and the shear effort and determination , was inspiring.
My weekly climbing training session on the turbo was still done, as was my running club speedwork day, and a few recovery rides thrown in where i could.

Derbyshire was postponed until this weekend, and I had a cracking ride there Saturday, doing 6500ft of climbing, over 56 miles, including the winnats pass 28% max gradient(not nice at all), and finishing off on the classic, cat and fiddle climb, which was a fantastic experience, and which I felt more comfortable on, albeit slowly, but riding it well within my abilities and this was right at the end of the ride, so pleased with that.

Sunday was a nice ride out with the local club riders and we covered 43 miles which was a nice way to unwind the legs from the hilly ride on Saturday.

So what have I learnt from Saturday session? a quadruple chain set would suit me just fine, a new rear end with more padding would be advisable, get rid of my fear of heights and speed and have all my cycling routes re-tarmaced with a smoother surface,
no it really did show up just what a massive challenge the etape really is, can I do it? I don`t know yet, but I will continue to train as hard as I can, and hopefully with some bigger sportives, coming up in the near future, then I can learn more and improve my chances of getting up to the top of the tourmalet in July.