Snow - in April!

Woke up this morning and looked outside. Snow! This is very unusual for April. At least this week the weather had the decency to start snowing BEFORE I had headed out for a ride (unlike two weeks ago, when I got snowed on mid-ride).

I took these looking out of my living room window:




Then I walked down to Tower Bridge and took some more photos:

New Bike!

New bike! It's a Focus Cayo Pro. I had been planning to buy a new bike for the upcoming cyclosportive season and this one fit my requirements nicely.

It has a full carbon monocoque frame (that means it's made from one continuous piece of carbon fibre, as opposed to individual carbon tubes glued together). It has a "compact" 50/34 chainset, which is well suited to long steep alpine ascents like the ones I will take on in Europe this year. My existing bike's 53/39 chainset would be too highly geared for such terrain. Besides, I had ridden nearly 14,000km on my existing bike, and felt that I had earned an upgrade :-)

At 7.7kg it weights 1.8kg less than my existing bike, so climbing should be a little bit easier. It's lower at the handlebars too, meaning I will be able to get a completely horizontal flat back when riding on the drops. This will give me better aerodynamics, and therefore more speed into the wind.

Now I have to wait four long days until the weekend...

Photos (the "before" shots):

Capital to Coast (London to Brighton charity ride)

This was a charity ride from Esher (just SW of central London) to Hove. Having completed the 120 mile British Cyclosportive a couple of weekends ago this 60 mile ride was not daunting, but the organisers did manage to put in several quite nasty hills along the way. I didn't personally witness anyone spontaneously combust as was reported to have happened at last year's event, but I did see plenty of people struggling, wobbling, zig-zagging, or walking up the steeper sections.

I rode most of the day with Jason and Pete. Both had completed the half-distance option of last year's event. At the time they both found even 30 miles quite challenging, and were reportedly so far gone towards the end that they were hallucinating about a malevolent monkey stalking them through the trees...

This year, Pete had trained for and ridden the British Cyclosportive with me 2 weeks ago, and was flying along with a grin on his face, enjoying how much fitter he was compared with last year. Jason however had trained by going on a week long cyclo-drinking tour in Amsterdam, topped off by 12 pints of beer the night before the event, and was paying the penalty. That said, Jason still made it to the end in good spirits.

The last major hill had a nasty-sounding name: "Devil's Dyke", and had been built up in Pete & Jason's tales to be a near vertical cliff of cruel tarmac with the dessicated husks of ex-cyclists decorating the sides of the road. To give it its due, it was definitely a steep one, but it was actually over quite quickly. I enjoyed the downhill run into Hove, and drafted off a double-decker bus much of the way like a dolphin riding the wake of a ship.

We were greeted by a cheering crowd at Hove, and I realised that although 60 miles is not a long ride for me anymore, it would have been most of the riders' hardest day in the saddle ever. Congrats to all who made it.

Photos (none of me though...):

Pete, Jason, Pete + Jason, etc.:



















At the finish area:

Smithfield Nocturne - Criterium Race

As part of the Tour de France buildup there was a crit race organised around the area between Barbican and Farringdon tube stations. They ran several fun/silly races throughout the evening before the main event kicked off.

Things started off with a courier challenge. The riders had to stop at places around the course and deliver things, collect signatures etc. It didn't really work as a race, but it kept the crowd occupied:











The next race was the folding bike race. Contestants had to wear work clothing, and they had to start with their bikes folded up. This was a fast and furious race. Very funny!











Then the main event got underway, with the elite racers coming out for a few warm-up laps before the start proper:










The race itself was extremely fast-paced. There was a solo breakaway almost immediately, and the guy stayed out front for most of the race but was eventually reeled in a few minutes before the finish:



















Despite the very wet road there was only one crash that I saw. Fortunately the guy got up and walked away, so he can't have been too hurt.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge! My riding buddy Pete suggested we should do a long ride to Stonehenge one weekend, and this was the weekend we chose. The weather was perfect; cool, dry, and slightly cloudy but with plenty of patches of blue sky.

The two of us took a train from London Waterloo south west to Basingstoke, then got on our bikes and cycled to Stonehenge & back along very quiet country back roads. It was almost dead calm the whole day, and we set a cracking pace through the rolling countryside. There were a few long hills, but nothing particularly steep. The roads were well surfaced and smooth, which makes a big difference to the patchwork quilts that pass for roads in central London.

We arrived at Stonehenge, after a couple of slight detours due to poor road signage, with 75km on the odo. We kept on our proper route on the way back, and finished the day with 142km on the odo at an average speed of 26 km/hr. All in all a very enjoyable training ride.

Training - Portsmouth to Brighton

Three of us roadies (Rob, Pete, and I) have signed up to do the British Cyclosportive on July the 1st. It's a 200km (120 mile) meandering route from London to Canterbury, and will be a rather long day in the saddle for all of us (see: http://www.everydaycycling.com/news.aspx?fid=657). Until the end of June we'll be doing ever longer and faster rides to build endurance and power in our legs. All going well we should cover the 200km in about 7 hours on race day...

Pete and I met at Waterloo station at 7:45 in the morning with the intention of catching a train to Basingstoke and then cycling down to see Stonehenge. Unfortunately for us, part of the rail line was being repaired and they were operating a replacement bus service for that section. Buses and bikes don't go together, so we had to change our plans.

Pete came up with an alternative plan: 60 miles from Portsmouth to Brighton. We caught a train down to Portsmouth, got on the bikes, and headed out.

It turned out to be a very nice day for cycling. The route was mostly flat & smooth, but we did have a headwind most of the way.

Pics: