It Takes Time…

Isn’t that a song? SO…

Tour De France update:
Right, I pick Melissa up early Sunday morning from Heathrow. Drive to Folkestone. have coffee. Get on the Eurotunnel. Over to Calais, Have coffee. Drive to Pau for check in Monday at the 1st hotel. Have caffeine. Watch Le Tour finish in Pau. Have a drink or several. Find out where everyone is.
Tuesday: Coffee. Breakfast. Tweet. check out and drive to 2nd hotel in Pau. Wander around. Take pictures. Tweet. Blog.
Wednesday:Coffee. Breakfast. check out of hotel. Drive to somewhere near the Tourmalet. Annoy people on Twitter with incessant tweeting ‘wish you were here? nah nah na na nah.’ Meet up with Twitter friends. Have coffee with coffee. Incessant road chalking (including hashtags). Get excited by the caravan coming past. Try not to fall down the mountain whilst fighting for freebies. cover my ears as the screaming starts. Cheer on anyone riding a bike. Shout ‘Allez’ rather a lot. Pretend I speak French. Set up tent and camp.
Thursday: drive like an idiot to Cote De Burs. Repeat Tweeting, Chalking, getting excited by the Caravan and cheering on anyone on a bike. Pretend I speak French, Dutch and Italian. drive to feedzone for Friday. Oh lots of coffee.
Friday: Plenty of coffee. Sleep. Food. Chalking. Cheering. Fight everyone for bidons and musettes. Crash and burn. Caffeine. Camp somewhere. Tweet.
Saturday: drive to Paris and park early. Coffee. Stretch legs. Check in hotel. Catch train to Chartres. Watch some of Time Trial. Catch train back to Paris. Blog. Tweet. Facebook. Get changed. Find Verity. Party with the Team Sky Fans.
Sunday: work out where to meet Team Sky Fans. Coffee. Coffee. Breakfast. Tweet. go to Champs Elysees. Be there stupidly early. Get madly excited. Coffee. Meet lots of people. Pretend to speak French, Dutch, Italian and German. And possibly Flemish. And Welsh. Watch race…… haven’t figured out the next bit, but may include partying…..
Monday: drive to Calais. On Eurotunnel. Folkestone. Coffee x 3. Home.

Except we have a problem. Melissa needs to be back to Heathrow by 11am. Whats the cheapest way of getting back?

hope you enjoyed 🙂

Ciao xx

National Road Race Champs – Wish I was there!

Hey everyone, today is the National Road Race Championships, held at Ampleforth Abbey, Ampleforth, York. I would have like to attended this, but it wasn’t possible. For the Mens race (start at 1.15pm) there is no Wiggins (last years winner), no Cav, no Pete Kennaugh (4 time podium finisher – what a lad!) and no G (Geraint Thomas). This makes it interesting, and I’m giving my support to Endura Racing (@enduraracing) – who have done so well in the Halfords Tour Series.

For the womens race (which is already underway as i type this) I would have to go for either Lizzie Armitstead or Emma Pooley – both who deserve to win this! (Dead heat anyone :P).

As there is no live coverage – apart from the excellent people on twitter (if they have phone signal) – it might be worth watching tomorrow on ITV4 at 7pm. If not head over to twitter for updates!

If you want to view the start lists – http://bcyorkshire.co.uk/national-road-race-championships-2012-start-lists/

Let’s hope it isn’t too windy up there!

Have fun!

Logistical Nightmare

How I would love to win the Lottery, or the Euromillions, it would make life so much easier!

I’ve been trying to work out exactly where Melissa and I are going in France. This includes when I pick her up from Heathrow early(ish) on Sunday 15th. I still have to book the Eurotunnel, and have left it this late due to lack of funds and trying to work out the timing. Also from Heathrow, I have to navigate the M25 and M26, which hopefully won’t be overly bad on a Sunday morning! This means I have to give ourselves a bit of extra time to get there (in case of the flight being late, or some hold up on the motorway) and we also need to ‘check in.’
Then from Calais, it’s some long drive to Pau – and although using the motorways over there would be quicker, the tolls are extortionate! And some thing I can’t really afford! This means staying mainly on the Nationale and Departmental routes – and also means I’ll need to print the route out! Gah!
The  http://www.autoroutes.fr/en/routes.htm is the route planner I’m using, as both RAC and AA route planners for Europe are rubbish. Thank god the French version is pretty good! It says driving time of just over 14 hours, so with a break or two, is more likely to be 16!
Say we get to Calais for 11am. Add another 16 hours. That is about 6am we can get to Pau. We obviously will have to stop, but we also need to get to Pau early enough so that we can find the hotel, park up and eat/sleep etc. Oh bearing in mind, the Stage that day finishes in Pau, so I expect it to be heaving, even early on!

Melissa – as soon as we check in, I will probably crash out for a few hours! Or overdose on caffeine!

So by Monday, we are there in Pau. Check In. sleep (for me). Get to the finish. Annoy people (possibly).

Tuesday is the last rest day at Le Tour. Great, have a lie in! Er we have to move the car to the hotel we are staying in on Tuesday night. Then I will possibly sleep again, and blog, and take far too many pictures, and email the parents!

Wednesday’s Stage starts in Pau. I am not missing this!

Wednesday night, Thursday night and Friday night have yet to be decided. But we have a tent!

Saturday and Sunday, we are booked into a hotel in Paris. We have a choice on Saturday, catch the train to watch them finish the Time Trial in Chartres, or go to the Team Sky Fan Party (TSFP), a 15 min walk from our hotel (er, that is a guess! It might not be that far!) The TSFP have a place to watch it all on a big screen and have a party afterwards! This, technically, will be the only night I can drink!

Sunday, we will be on the Champs Elysees, at the Team Sky Fan corner (although I like all the teams! I am not just a Sky fan!) and will be watching them finish.

Currently I have been invited to 3 parties on the Sunday night!

Monday we have to leave Calais fairly early as I expect the M26 and M25 to be a nightmare!

This has been a headache trying to organise this, but I’m so looking forward to it! It WILL be amazing!

Thanks to Andy for offering us a place to pitch our tent, we might see you on the Tourmalet  yet! Thanks to the kind invites to the parties (from various people) and the sheer amount of help I have received from Twitter and Wheelsuckers!

I still have to sort out various bits and bobs – where the hell do I get breathalyser kits from? And Iestyn, my lovely brother, can I borrow a laptop?!?!

Take care and keep smiling 😛

How much is too much? Cycletta.

Hmm, I wanted to have a look at the cycletta in Swindon http://www.cycletta.co.uk/event-info/cycletta-wiltshire.aspx and was then told it was £42 (for the 40km route). This struck me a a bit ridiculous, and consequently tweeted about it. No reply currently from cycletta, but I did get one from EtapeCymru:

@elzrocks hi, the extra investment goes into lots of safety, post event pampering, amazing venues and goodie bags. Fab cyclist experience

Yeah ok, safety needed etc, but Wiggle’s Magnificat http://www.cyclegb.co.uk/ had post event massage (not that I used it, but I did see people that did!). We also got a commemorative medal (which actually I had no idea about until I got it). I entered this for £9 (alright with a discount), but it’s still MILES cheaper than cycletta. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great idea, but with times like this, for some of us £42 is a hell of a lot of money (thanks to my lovely twitter people here who also agreed with me). Also with so few things happening in Basingstoke, I have to look further afield. Swindon is a town I used to know fairly well.
I cannot afford to do this. £42 is about what I have left weekly, and that has to cover my mobile bill, food, etc.

I would like to point out I am not having a go at anyone here. I just think it’s a high price to pay, when we should be encouraging more people to cycle. Especially women.

I promise this wasn’t a rant!

If you don’t agree with me, that’s fine. I’m not bothered!

Keep smiling.

Sprint Laps and a busy Sunday!

Hey people, hope you’re all enjoying Fathers Day! As it’s one of those weeks where everything has been a bit.. er… ‘off’ for lack of a better word. I went back to the joys of work on Thursday, and thanks to the winds I haven’t been out on my bike as a combination of knackered and windy/rainy evenings just don’t work sometimes!

I was aware that I must do some more planning of our (me and @melissagerman) route to Pau. I want to avoid toll roads, and its a sodding long way! However thanks to another Twitter friend, help is at hand! We also need to figure our where we want to be/go on Thursday (Bagnères-de-Luchon > Peyragudes) and Friday (Blagnac > Brive-la-Gaillarde).
I also need to check exactly what I need! Thanks to my parents for helping me out with this as well.

However there is only so much staring at the computer screen I can take, and aware that I will be staring at the screen for another few hours, I decided to test my Garmin Edge 200 out. I needed to go the cashpoint in town as well, so thought I’d hop onto Route 23 and swing through the War Memorial Park and down into Eastrop. Then I realised I hadn’t got anything with me apart from my phone, keys, cashcard and water. Oops. Didn’t want to go to far in case I flatted (got a puncture). Ah well, its a lovely day and thought I’d stretch my legs down the road by Eastrop. I like sprinting on fresh legs! Then it popped into my head that I was in walking distance of home (and I may have been inspired by Halfords Tour Series LOL), so thought I’d go for a few laps, and sprint down the road (the cycle path was majorly busy in the park – with people walking). Everytime I got to the bottom of the road, I was grinning like a loon. I did 8 laps in total, having a whale of a time, then realised I hadn’t switched the Garmin on. DO’H. I did one more lap, and headed on back to town, then home – I actually went up the hill home, and found it rather easy. Er, did I just say I found a small inconsequential hill easy?!?! Actually yeah I did. And it made me feel damn good. I’m still feeling good! Got to say that was much more enjoyable than I had thought it would be!!

Anyway have a brilliant day!

Ciao 🙂

 

Breeze road ride

5.45 meet in Eastrop Park. Only 3 of us, including ride leader Ruth. Just 20 miles. I’ll be fine!
I’m not sure of the route we went after we went out through Old Basing, but it included Stratfield Saye and Bramley, and we came back into town via Popley.

All I can say is it took my legs 10 miles to warm up! I still don’t get sore, achy legs, but my knees were a tad creaky this morning. Oh and I still get dropped on small hills 😛 I’ll get there one day!

It was lovely to meet Lex (on her new Specialized), and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride! And surprisingly don’t want to go back to work tomorrow, but hey!

In Bramley, we had to wait for 3 trains to go through the level crossing, which prompted Ruth to tell Lex about what happened at the level crossing in the Tour of Switzerland (or #TdS on Twitter). Thankfully that didn’t happen to us!

Only a short post this time, just keeping my fingers crossed that the weather might get less rainy at some point so I can get some decent miles in my legs. I’m still looking out for another sportif to do, and I’d welcome someone to ride with me (whoever it is would get a fair easy day out of it!).

Anyway, I’m off to.. er.. ‘watch’… Twitter (I’ve already missed the cycling on ITV4). And try not to embarrass myself any further….

Keep smiling 😛 😉

the Twitter Ladies Cake Club

Yesterday was fun, in fact a lot more than fun, it was EPIC! Via Twitter, me, @pebblesnbambam1 (Jen), @Ninja_Smerklo (Bev) and @helsbels1272 (Helen), decided to meet up for a ride in Shrivenham. Unfortunately Helen couldn’t make it (it’s a shame as it was a brilliant day!).
Waking up yesterday morning it was still raining, and on the drive over to my parents, I came across a couple of mini floods. The most major one on the A339 which had traffic lights around it (Yes really!). Now I grew up in the area near where Jen lives, and I know how much it can flood – so the first question I asked my parents (whilst eating a fry up) was: ‘Is Fawler bends flooded?’ This is the tiny village at the bottom of the hill next to Kingstone Lisle, and the bends in question lie between there and the next village, Uffington.  As neither had been down that way, they didn’t know, but there had been plenty of traffic up and down the road, so I hoped there wasn’t!

I had arranged to meet Jen in Uffington and cycle back to Shrivenham with here to then meet Bev. As I arrived in the village, Jen txt me to say she had to go a different way because it was flooded the way she was coming from, so I set off to meet her by the lovely village of Fernham. I was hoping the stream wasn’t high enough to have covered the road, and thankfully we were lucky! Now I’ve only talked to Jen (and Bev) via Twitter and Facebook, but immediately recognised Jen – wearing her Wiggins Sky Rainforest Rescue jersey (she won it, lucky bugger!)

Needless to say, there was a few puddles on the road, but nothing major! We got back to Jen’s, and it wasn’t long until Bev arrived and we had a coffee and set off!

Funnily enough I don’t think any of us stopped talking much, and it was great to meet these two lovely ladies. Bev used Endomondo to track our route, although I had a fairly clear idea where were going!
Shrivenham, out towards Highworth, Lechlade…
Ahh, I won’t tell you about our toilet stop for Jen in Highworth, although thats where I got my ‘Cat 4 Tattoo’

I tend to lean on my chain and not notice, thanks for the pic Bev!

Then we cycled onto Lechlade, where we had a cafe stop http://www.theteachestlechlade.co.uk/#!
What a gem of a place to find! We could lean the bikes outside, and see them through the big glass windows, and we even had our lattes and cake bought over! I’m not sure how long we stayed, chatted and laughed. But I would recommend it to anyone on a bike, that likes cake and coffee!

From Lechlade, we turned back toward Faringdon, then on the road toward Little Coxwell and up (at the roundabout) onto the A420, then back to Longcot, Fernham, towards Uffington (along Station Road) and up through Fawler to Kingston Lisle. Bev made the hill look far too easy, whilst I just about got up it! We then showed Bev the infamous Blowingstone Hill – bit steep that one! then back along the B4507

Me digging a gel out – just don’t ask why I didn’t have it in my jersey!

to Compton Beauchamp – showing Bev the White horse Hill on the way – and back through to Shrivenham.

With the little extra bit of cycling, my bike clock said 41 miles! The furthest I’ve gone yet 🙂 With friends, and endless chatting, you don’t realise how far you have gone. Just wished these two lived a bit closer to me!

We also cycled round to Subway and back (in Shrivenham) and it’s never tasted soooo good!

I had an unforgettable day, meeting these two lovely ladies, and had a cracking ride on the bike. Hopefully we can do it again, and maybe the three of us do a sportif somewhere along the line! And get Helen to join us!

Ladies, you were awesome! Thanks for looking after me (the slow one!). 🙂
This is just the start of the Twitter Ladies Cake Club! #TLCC

cheers!

Getting dropped and getting back on!

Yah is the first word that comes into my head. Getting dropped, for non bikie people, means starting with a group of people and then seeing them sail away into the distance. Hmm, not fun.

Again I got there far too early and hung around for ages. Chatted to a nice bloke called Steven who was equally early – his friend had got stuck in traffic, and they were doing the 60miler. Eventually Mum and Dad arrived, I’ll have to get Dad to have a go at one of these, and I registered and waited for Annie to arrive. Unfortunately I didn’t see her, and she hadn’t signed in so I was faced with the prospect of doing this alone. I’m not sure what time I set off in the end, and promptly got passed by all but 2 going up this stupidly small hill! Hahaha I said I was slow! I’ve got to admit that on your own doing this isn’t that much fun for a first timer, and when a group passed me the first time I just sighed and got on with it. Then another group passed me and I wanted to cry, but told myself to shut the hell up and get on with it. So I did. Then I started passing a lot of people with punctures, just at the bottom of the hill that went on forever. Oh my lord, I was wobbling but determined to get up there in bottom gear, and it got steeper! I knew a car was behind me, and had been for some time, and thought it was best if I pulled into the side as it was fairly narrow. 5 second break. I wasn’t sure I’d get up the hill, but I did, even though for the next mile or so I puffed along in bottom gear. I really could do with a friend right now, I kept thinking, and as I got to a t-junction I could see rather a lot of people cycling past. Had I gone the wrong way? Then I remembered we had been told at the start that there was the three counties cycle ride on. Most people were doing that! I passed a couple of them, and felt a bit better! Then I saw a feed station, and realised at the last second that it wasn’t ours – it was the three counties one! Needless to say quite a lot of people who had passed me were stopped here, but I didn’t feel it was fair, so I carried on. (I later heard several people complain that the ‘first’ feed station didn’t have any cake!!).

Then I heard someone behind me, who promptly overtook me. He was only going a bit faster than me, so I managed to sit in his wheel for a few miles until I saw ‘our’ feed station. I stopped with a sigh of relief, and got talking to three blokes who were doing the short 30miler that i was doing. ‘Can I tag along with you?’ I naively asked when they said how slow they were. ‘Sure.’
i tried the High5 energy drink they had at the feed zone, it was pretty good actually! Also had flapjack and jelly beans! It was also time to take off my lightweight rain jacket (it had been cool at the start and although I wasn’t hot, I thought it’d be easier to take it off as I didn’t really want to stop again.
So away downhill I went, sodding freezing now I’d taken my jacket off!! (I only possess a short sleeved jersey that I bought yesterday from Pedal On) But as soon as we hit the flat my legs wanted to give up, and it wasn’t long before I was getting dropped, and the three blokes were out of sight up the next small incline. It was fairly warm by now, I was sweating buckets and blowing like an idiot, but was determined to get up the next hill, hoping there would be a descent somewhere along the line!
Then a couple of miles later, there was and I found myself overtaking the 3 that had dropped me! I’d never felt so good! Looking behind, they had disappeared a minute later, then my chain came off! Damn it! Only took a second to put back on and I was away again. Then traffic lights appeared, which gave them a chance to catch up with me, by now I’d had an energy gel (why didn’t I think of it earlier?) and took off away from them again!!
Turning a corner, a chaffinch nearly caused me to have a heart attack when I thought it was going to fly into my front wheel! instead it flew in a straight line in front of me, giving me a chance to admire its colours!
Suddenly there was only a couple of miles left, and before I knew it I was at the finish! I got my time 2 hours 40 mins. My bike clock said 2 hours 29 mins (it stops when I stop moving, so it had taken into account my stop at the feed station and when my chain came off).

I’m sooo happy I did it, although it’s not as fun on my own, and I have no idea if Annie turned up in the end. I’ll email her later and find out.

I will say this wasn’t as well organised as the Wiggle Magnificat, the maps given out were a bit rubbish, and I was unable to download the gpx. file before the ride. I was lucky enough to get there so early I could park opposite the village hall (where we registered). I just wish the Evans blog had been better updated with the details of the day. However the route I did, with the explanation at the start, I thought to be extremely well marked out. Although I did hear several people complaining that it wasn’t!

No matter what, I really enjoyed it, and am fairly chuffed with my time! I will post photo’s later…

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Thanks for reading this, can’t wait for the next one!

Cheers!

Reading Ride-It tomorrow

Just a quick post – I’ve already said I’m doing the Reading Ride-It tomorrow (the 30miler). Thank god I managed to contact Annie – who rode the last of the LadyCat with me – and I’ll be able to meet her there. This is brilliant as we pretty much ride at the same pace and she was great to have a laugh with!

I also seem to be supporting Endura (clothing) single handedly – bought a mens small racing jersey, and fingerless gloves from http://www.pedalon.co.uk/acatalog/shop_info.html and already own a hi-viz jacket. The mens racing jersey was 50% off – even though the bloke on the till had no idea they had a sale rail!! Happy days!

I also have my Magnificat bib shorts – they are perfect! Wonder if I’ll be able to wear them tomorrow?!?!

The ride tomorrow doesn’t seem as well organised as Wiggle’s Magnificat last weekend. Maps of the route still haven’t appeared in my email inbox – and have failed to get a reply after emailing them. Thankfully they have maps there tomorrow.

I’d also like to point out that I’m not having a dig at them! And I understand about pre riding the ‘course.’

Anyway, hopefully the rain stays away…
There is always wishful thinking…

Cheers!!

Addicted!?

So I’ve been back to work since Monday – racehorses don’t feed/exercise/water themselves (unfortunately). I thought I’d give myself a day off the bike yesterday as although my legs were fine, I was shattered! So hope all of you that get the Bank Holiday off had a great time 🙂 Oh, did it rain? 😛

I posted on Twitter to ask if anyone is doing the sportif at Reading http://www.evanscycles.com/ride-it/reading-10th-june-2012
I’m going to have a go at the 30 miler – although that does mean I need to get some miles into my legs this week! And no I haven’t gone out today!

It doesn’t matter if I don’t know anyone doing it – it would just be nice to go around with someone, seen as this will only be my second sportif and on roads I don’t know! Hmm, hopefully someone will come through!

I got a surprise this morning when my dad text me and said he’d bought me some bib shorts (and in my size)!
 http://www.wiggle.co.uk/wiggle-ladies-magnificat-cycling-bib-shorts/
I’m unbelievably pleased!

I also know it’s going to be hard to find time to go out on the bike – but I enjoy it sooo much, that TdF planning is having to wait until its late/dark.

So any suggestions for the next sportif? I don’t really want to be doing anything in excess of 30 miles for a couple of months. I can’t afford to travel far either!

And next Tuesday I get to meet up with some fellow Twitter friends and go for a ride around the area I grew up in (Oh god, white Horse Hill!?!?!). Yes I do have a couple of days off work 😉

Cheers!!