Practically all my training has been done solo, all on my lonesome, then this past week I have been out cycling with 2 Joglers on separate occasions. Just like buses as I said.
Last Friday (the 11th) Dr Stephen was down visiting from Scotland so we arranged to meet up for a quick tour of the local Cotswold Hills. We had a fine little ride of 32 miles, based on a route in a recent cycling plus. Our route is here if you care to look. Stephen was, as usual, quicker than me up the hills, weighing about 3 stone as he does, even at his 6ft4ish height. Even so I didn't get tearful and just pretended I was taking it easy before the HONC. I think Steve knew better but is too much of a gent to say so.
Due to the actual riding of the JOGLE starting a day later Dr Stephen is now able to join us for an extra day so we should have more bodies to cut through those Scottish winds.
On Sunday it was HONC or Hell Of The North Cotswolds day. Dave came up for the ride with his rather lovely Specialized Hardtail. He also came bearing gifts courtesy of Pete at Iron Bridge Runner in Exeter who had given Dave a load of Science in Sport goodies at very low prices to help the JOGLERS. (Pete is a top bloke who has also offered to supply goodies for the actual event and drive us to John O'Groats from Inverness Airport. Cheers Pete.)
We started off right near the back of the 1000 strong pack since we were out for a days riding rather than setting any records.
This can be mildly frustrating as the sheer volume of riders cause bottlenecks at the narrower points and we came to a complete standstill on several occasions. This was not really a problem though as the atmosphere and organisation were as usual great. Everyone happy to chat and throw about cheesy one liners about men in shorts etc. All good fun. The ride itself was great for the most part and gave my Focus Cross Disc a chance to show its true colours. I can truly say that it excelled. I was really chuffed with it's performance. There was a lot of gloopy mud and many mountain bikers were having to stop to clear the mud from their frame but my skinny little steed kept on riding. 
There was not really any point during the ride were I felt at a disadvantage to the Mountain Bikers and I was finally glad to have taken the disc option on the bike.
With about 20 miles to go Dave's saddle started to slip slide all over the place in his seat post to the point that it became unridable (as detailed below by Dave). So after 10 miles of struggling we decided to abort. This did not feel like a let down to me though as we had covered 50 miles of pretty tough on/off road terrain and had a really good work out. Even better I felt pretty fresh which bodes well for the JOGLE. Here is our shortened route. Pics to follow when these guys upload them.
Last Friday (the 11th) Dr Stephen was down visiting from Scotland so we arranged to meet up for a quick tour of the local Cotswold Hills. We had a fine little ride of 32 miles, based on a route in a recent cycling plus. Our route is here if you care to look. Stephen was, as usual, quicker than me up the hills, weighing about 3 stone as he does, even at his 6ft4ish height. Even so I didn't get tearful and just pretended I was taking it easy before the HONC. I think Steve knew better but is too much of a gent to say so.
Due to the actual riding of the JOGLE starting a day later Dr Stephen is now able to join us for an extra day so we should have more bodies to cut through those Scottish winds.
On Sunday it was HONC or Hell Of The North Cotswolds day. Dave came up for the ride with his rather lovely Specialized Hardtail. He also came bearing gifts courtesy of Pete at Iron Bridge Runner in Exeter who had given Dave a load of Science in Sport goodies at very low prices to help the JOGLERS. (Pete is a top bloke who has also offered to supply goodies for the actual event and drive us to John O'Groats from Inverness Airport. Cheers Pete.)We started off right near the back of the 1000 strong pack since we were out for a days riding rather than setting any records.
This can be mildly frustrating as the sheer volume of riders cause bottlenecks at the narrower points and we came to a complete standstill on several occasions. This was not really a problem though as the atmosphere and organisation were as usual great. Everyone happy to chat and throw about cheesy one liners about men in shorts etc. All good fun. The ride itself was great for the most part and gave my Focus Cross Disc a chance to show its true colours. I can truly say that it excelled. I was really chuffed with it's performance. There was a lot of gloopy mud and many mountain bikers were having to stop to clear the mud from their frame but my skinny little steed kept on riding. 
There was not really any point during the ride were I felt at a disadvantage to the Mountain Bikers and I was finally glad to have taken the disc option on the bike.With about 20 miles to go Dave's saddle started to slip slide all over the place in his seat post to the point that it became unridable (as detailed below by Dave). So after 10 miles of struggling we decided to abort. This did not feel like a let down to me though as we had covered 50 miles of pretty tough on/off road terrain and had a really good work out. Even better I felt pretty fresh which bodes well for the JOGLE. Here is our shortened route. Pics to follow when these guys upload them.
2 comments:
Poofs
said that fat bald man
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