Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

Old Skool...!


Finally the Continental Sport Contacts have given up on the MTB, over 18 months of commuting my mtb to work has seen what looks like the brake block perish the rear side wall but on closer inspection its actually the bead which has come away! too much pressure i'm guessing.

They have been great with only one puncture in the rear and that was from a big bit of glass in December 2011! so I've switch to an old Emmelle old school men's racer to commute on...




Awesome!!!

Not ideal but it saves the boardman from getting dirty. The only problem is the gearing, 53/39 on the front and a 23/12 on the rear, basically the same gearing as the boardman but without the small front ring!!!! Good for a bit of strength training i guess and after last Sunday that can only be a good thing!

23 tooth rear gear is a bit of a handful around here!





On the plus side the boardman will seem like a dream to ride after :)

Rain Rain and more bloody Rain...!!!!

Well so much for trying to increase the miles every week... so far its been nothing but heavy rain, better than ICE I guess, well less painful anyway! One break in the weather did see both myself and Sean go out with the Lanhydrock Wheelers on Sunday.

Quite a short ride but very hilly and being still a bit under the weather I found it pretty hard going!
Spoke to some really nice guys in the club some which had also ridden in the pyrenees... one short conversation with one guy did ring a few alarm bells though... he said "people say the hills are not like those around here" (implying they are easier aboard) he simply said... "no they bloody ain't!"    

Anyway after Sunday ride I think both Sean and I feel we need to push on and get cracking with the training, unfortunately as the title of this post suggests it not going to be easy.

Wednesday, 23 January 2013

Cycling Survival 1 - How to cycle in the mountains - Climbing Technique

Col d' Marie Blanque

Nice... 3rd and final climb of day 9!

Col d'Soulor

This is the way we will be riding... well direction anyway...!

Descent of Col d'Aubisque...

At home nursing my wounds and getting over a cold I've come across this...

Looks amazing doesn't it... unfortunately he is riding down the way we will be riding up!!!!

11 minutes down hill at that pace is err... several more going up and this is just the little bit between the Col d'Aubisque and Col d'Soulor!



On the plus side this was shot with a GoPro Hero 2 mounted on a chest mount, at 720p the video quality looks great.

Monday, 21 January 2013

Cold and painful commute!

Hum... the weekend being as cold as it was and me suffering from cold feet, I decided not to go out on the roadie but do other things instead.

Getting on the MTB to ride to work this morning I really wasn't relishing the though of riding as it was SO COLD, I noticed the rear tyre was a bit soft,  I nearly got the Boardman out as it was there ready to go!  instead i put a bit more air the tyre, good job i did!  ICE ICE and more ICE on the road around Carnglaze Caverns!  even though i could see the road was slippery I carried on riding very gingerly, I've ridden through there in the ICE many times and never had a problem...

BANG! was the sound as I hit the road...  didn't know anything about it... didn't have time to do anything!  lucky I was going slow so it was just a straight down fall but even so it hurt like hell!

Getting up I couldn't even stand up on the main bit of the road so had to walk pretty much in the hedge just to push my bike!

Good job the roadie was still at home and I didn't fall off that one and break something!

Cold start

Well that was a cold start to the day with the car reading -2c it was easy to just say, sod it take the car, but no on the bike it was. Even though temperatures were freezing the roads were very good with no ice, the only issue was the cattle grids but managed to get to work with out coming off, shame Nigel couldn't say the same.

Friday, 18 January 2013

Gearing up! - Recording the ride!


To record the ride and ensure we don't get lost a number of us use Garmin Edge GPS units, mine pictured above is an Garmin Edge 500, it records your position using GPS it also records your heart rate, cadence the air temperature and of course time, the amount of data it can show you while you are riding is fantastic...  speeds, gradient, averages of everything you can imagine, it will also warn you if you are working too hard or not hard enough!

The Garmin Edge 800 (which Craig the ride organizer uses) also shows detailed maps and has advanced navigation, my navigation needs to be done on my phone as the Edge 500 only has pretty basic navigation functions.

Details of our daily rides will be uploaded from my Garmin on Strava which will enable followers to see exactly our daily progress.

Gearing-up! - Gears

The standard gearing on a Boardman Team Carbon is 50/34 (called a compact chain-set as it gives a wider gear range than the standard 53/39 and almost as wide as a triple which has 3 cogs) on the front and 12/25 10 speed on the rear.

As many cyclist will have found out (especially in a hilly area such as Cornwall) this gearing is plenty hi enough, and for those of us over 40 probably a bit too high!  with is in mind i have equipped my machine with a 11/28 cassette on the rear, this gives me essentially an extra gear at either end of the original range, easier to peddle up the hills and fast down hill... win win...   well there is a little trade-off, the changing is not quite as smooth as there is a greater tooth difference between gears but its worth it as even if its only psychological knowing there is one more gear really makes a big difference.

Thursday, 17 January 2013

Roscoff to Santander this year.... next year!!!!!

Maybe not but just goes to show what people are capable of!  3000 miles in 10 days!!!!!!  Yeah but the USA is flat... lol

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

OMG - More on Day 9!!!!

Day 9 on our trip is undoubtedly going to be remembered!!!! 

I have looked at the route and imported it into a different mapping system and found the elevation to be err... somewhat different than the mapmyride site!


Take note of the Elevation +11386 ft and Max grade of 31.4% and not 6700 ft as reported by MMR!   looking at that i thought that must be wrong so i then compared the route to the well know Dartmoor Classic 65 mile route... after all that is considered to be a very tough ride!   below is the result of that comparison!  

OMG the blue line is the hilly 65 mile Dartmoor Classic the red is day 9's ride...  the elevation marker is on the summit of the Col d'Aubisque which is spot on. 



Last Graph... honest!

To help put it into prospective i have over-layed the 2013 Coasting Cornwall 60 mile sportive route,  that is a tough 60 mile route with several major climbs to negotiate, it starts at Lanhydrock and goes through St Neot, Looe, Lerryn and Lostwithiel! lumpy to say the least. 





Bearing in mind when i plan a ride around here i try to keep the climbing to around 100ft per mile so it stays challenging this day is going to be 196 ft/mile!!!!!!!!!! like I said a day to remember!

Doesn't look much like 30% to me! just looks awesome! 





I pretty sure it wont be quite 11000 odd ft and will be somewhere between the two... thats the optimistic side of me coming out. lol 

Sometimes you just wish you never looked into things!!!

Monday, 14 January 2013

Air Ambulance Letter

Just recieved a letter from the Cornwall Air Ambulance Trust thanking us for setting up a just giving page,  I've also now got some sponsorship forms for anyone who wishes to sponsor us but not using the online systems :)
Thanks Tom.


"Hi Nigel,

I hope you're well.
 
I've been notified by JustGiving that you have set up a fundraising page in aid of Cornwall Air Ambulance Trust for your Roscoff to Santander cycle – sounds like a good challenge!

I just wanted to drop you a quick line to say thank you for choosing to support Cornwall Air Ambulance. Every year we fly around 1,000 emergency missions, and the service can in many cases be the difference between life and death to our patients. It’s onlyt because of people like you that we can keep flying.

If there is anything we can do to assist you in your fundraising, please do let me know. In the meantime, I've attached our Fundraising Guide to hopefully give you some ideas and answer any questions you might have.
 
Best Wishes

Tom

Tom Matthews

Events and Community Fundraiser
Cornwall Air Ambulance Trust
T: 01637 88 99 26 // M: 07817 92 96 79"

Thursday, 10 January 2013

Col d'Aubisque Profile

Nice...   Just one of the climbs on day 9!!!!




Route pages.

On our route pages the maps are fully interactive!

You can zoom/scroll and even "walk" around the route.  Simply pick up the gold man in the top left of the map and place him on the route!  you can even see how hilly it's going to be!  not 100% thats a good thing!!!!



Wow! what a start !!! :)











Well yesterday our fund raising efforts started in earnest...

WHAT A RESPONSE!!!

A BIG THANK YOU to all those who have donated already! 


Wednesday, 9 January 2013

Video Camera's

One of the things we really would like to do is record some of the ride. Not every little bit but enough to make a short film after of some of the high's and low's! Sean has a action camera which he has been testing different mounting options.

The camera he's using is a 720p action cam... like this.



Test one was on the handle bars (video speeded up... he does ride that quick!)

Test two mounted on his helmet.

Monday, 7 January 2013

Cycle from Roscoff to Santander 2013: Day 11 - Route Details

Our route maps have now all been added, many thanks to Craig Powell for planning the route.

Cycle from Roscoff to Santander 2013: Day 11 - Route Details:
This will be the killer day for sure... long and hilly!!!!

Use the page tabs on the right to view the rest of the days routes.


Text to Donate.


If you would like to donate more than £1 then simply enter the amount after the £.  
eg text NYEO99 £2 to 70070 to donate £2.

Sunday, 6 January 2013

First proper training ride of 2013

First ride on the Boardman of 2013, now with the new shifters installed.

Pretty miserable weather to start with,  misty and drizzly, with the thought of having to clean my bike again I nearly didn't bother going out, trouble is its so easy to fall into the... "I'll do it tomorrow" trap and next thing you know its a week... fortnight... month!!  so you've got to push yourself sometimes.

The shifters took a little bedding in with the cables needing a tweek after the first few miles but after that they were faultless. They are very smooth and quick in action, you really can notice the reduced lever travel over the Rival levers (the red has Zero Loss Shifting, my old Rival didn't), real world riding would that be an advantage?  racing probably but pleasure/sportive riding probably not but they are a pleasure to use and look gorgeous!

On the ride itself, I think I might be carrying a few extra pounds after Christmas!.... seemed pretty hard work although an average speed of 15.3 mph ain't too bad.  Onward on upward!


Friday, 4 January 2013

New shifters

Well the new shifters are all installed and working great, just got to wait for some reasonable weather to try them out...!

Feels really nice shifting and braking, its probable got quite a bit to do with having new cables as well.

Upgrade time... SRAM RED shifters.

After my Rival gear broke i really wanted to upgrade, spending ££££ on your bike and actually having nothing better after seemed a little silly, bit like filling your car up with petrol... it costs a load but actually hasn't made it drive any better... :(     So after much googling and reading of reviews etc i decided really wanted to upgrade if only for the reliability.  After getting the nod i ordered... very much a combined Christmas and birthday present.  My Christmas and my bikes Birthday :)

Thursday, 3 January 2013

My Just Giving page


http://www.justgiving.com/NigelYeo-Cycle

Goals

Well 3rd of January and I'm 80kg!! Best and cheapest way to make your bike lighter and easier to ride is to lose weight yourself!
My goal is to be 76kg in June. 4kg is more than half my bike weight... it should be easy!... right!

Wednesday, 2 January 2013

Cornwall Air Ambulance.

I have decided to support The Cornwall Air Ambulance Trust again, i say again as in 2011 i rode my first cycle sportive, the Dartmoor Classic (what a great event that is), initially i intended to ride the 106 mile route but having suffered some knee problems it almost looked like i wouldn't be able to compete at all so i changed to the shorter 65 mile route.

As i am relativity new to the sport of cycling i thought although it wasn't the magic 100 miles that i really wanted to do a 65 mile cycle ride was pretty challenging so i decided to get sponsored anyway.

Me being me i left it all to the last minute but was overwhelmed by the support, particularly by my work mates, raising £414 really made the effort feel extra worth while.

They sent a really nice personalised letter thanking me, which i thought was nice.

This year i will be setting up a Justgiving page (link to follow).

Its this year!!!

Well the countdown has begun... New year 2013 starts the countdown to our epic 1000 mile cycle ride from Roscoff to Santander. The adventure starts on June the 14th from Plymouth where we depart at 11pm on the ferry and arrive in France at 8am. 12 days of riding to get too Santander in Spain. The days are pretty mixed with the daily distance being around 85 miles. The notable exceptions being day 3 at 103 miles and only 1,190 ft of climb :) and day 11! 98 miles 7385 ft of climb!!!! thats almost the same as the Dartmoor Classic i rode in the summer (24th June 2012) that after day 9, the first day in the Pyrenees 58 miles and 6736 ft and day 10, 67 miles and 5512 ft its truly going to be a challenge!!

Tuesday, 1 January 2013

My trusty steed!!!

My bike for the challenge is a 2010 Boardman Team Carbon.  I bought it as a 40th birthday present (to myself).

Its not 100% original as  I've added a few bits on the way!


Second 100 miler - Dartmoor Classic 2012

Dartmoor Classic was tougher than the Exmoor Beast!   106 miles (i know the garmin says 98miles but i switched it off at Prince Town and didn't realise till a few miles down the road... Doh!)

My first 100 mile ride... Exmoor Beast 2011