Tour of Flanders Sportif

Back from a great weekend in Belgium.

140 km of riding on part of the course of one of cyclings' spring classics, the Tour of Flanders.

Cobbles and pointy little hills and freezing rain made for a tough ride. Andy,Mark and myself were all shivering at the end.

5'20" ish for the 140K, a hillier ride than last weekends Cheshire Cat at 150K, and only 20 minutes slower.

I'm happy with that.

A clip of the pros at Kortrijk taken the following day.

8 years on.

Back in 2000 I participated in the Grand Raid Cristalp. One of the worlds mountain bike classic races. 131 km and 5000 metres of climbing. I got round just within the cut off time, in 11 hours and 50 minutes.

This year I've entered again, and am hoping to improve on that time by a couple of hours.

Also this year plenty of new events.



Hit the North, a 12 hour enduro just down the road from here. A grass roots event with all proceeds going to charity , and a big party after.

Another highlight is the Dave Lloyd Mega Challenge 140 miles on the road in North Wales with 5000 metres of climbing, apparently one of the toughest sportive rides. Well we'll see.



But of course the Lakeland Lugger 150 comes first.

A mere 150 miles in the Lakes and 9000 metres of up.

I hope the weather is nice.

A Hilly 100

James and I had a great ride out yesterday.



The rest of the story is on my on-one blog clicky here.

Snake Pass is Still Shut

We couldn't resist yet again.

Forsaking, the mud peat and heather for a second week running, we lucky few did an anti-clockwise loop this time on the road bikes.

Up Highgate Rd., Rushup Edge, Mam Nick then down, and along the valley to Bamford, the easier side of the Snake Pass, Glossop and the kicker Chunal at the end.

An extra 100 metres of climbing this week, so just short of 1400 climbing. A smidge under 24kph average.

Beers in the Royal after with the boys from the Hayfield Hub.

Nice.

Chunal, Snake Pass, Winnats, Chinley Head

James aka Crazy-Legs texted me today to suggest we might go out on the road bikes this evening for a short ride. I texted him back to suggest we might head over the Snake Pass, taking advantage of the fact that it is currently closed to traffic. Not the short ride he had in mind, but he couldn't resist.

It was a great ride in spite of the cold,wind and drizzle.

55Km, and just short of 1300 metres of climbing, a good workout.

My new bike is ace.

Runner or Cyclist ?

Nearing the end of the month, and I have run as many times as I have been out on the bike.

The initial plan was to get in a little cross training, running up some hills of which there are plenty round here. After the first couple of inevitably painful runs, I've enjoyed the immediacy of chucking on some running shoes and heading straight out without the faff of organising a bike and accompanying accessories.

Into the hills visiting footpaths that are new has been great. Of course when you get back, there's no cleaning and maintenance required, just throw the Walshes in the corner until next time.

Yesterday a clockwise loop round the Kinder Horseshoe ~ 19Km and a couple of hours, fantastic.

Though my legs were proper sore at the end.



However, Dear reader cycling is not forsaken.

How could it be Mr Amtrak brought this round today.

A Planet X Carbon Superlight Ultegra equipped speed machine.






I guess I might be out on the road bike tomorrow......

Strathpuffer 2008 the aftermath

I was smiling, it was early in the race, or I was chatting to a pretty girl , of which there were many.

The rest of the race did not go to plan,some details elsewhere

Next year of course.

Getting ready for the Strathpuffer 24 hour Mountain Bike Race

This time tomorrow I'll hopefully be most of the 400+ miles up the road towards Strathpeffer, where on Saturday morning at 10 am will be the start of the Strathpuffer 24 hour mountain bike race.

I'll be doing the solo event race number 49, live streamed results can be found at http://www.sportident.co.uk/ .

I've started packing, and already have covered the dining room table.



Ice tyres, mud tyres, 3 full sets of waterproofs, 5 pairs of waterproof gloves, 8 pairs of padded shorts, hats, waterproof socks, gels, tools, tubes etc etc.

For lights I'll be using a Dinotte 600L on the bars, and a 200L on the helmet. 7 Lithium Ion batteries should see me through the 18 hours of darkness. Somewhat different to the 18 hours of sunlight in the summer 24 hour events.



Anyway back to the packing, lots more to do.

Thanks to Stu for loaning his Dirt Worker, and Andy Champion for his Gazebo.

Excercise resumed

The shoulder is loads better now. I manged a couple of hours out on the bike on New Years eve. Then a run up Lantern Pike on New Years Day.

Great to be out and about again.

Hope you all have a good New Year.

The Brian Rourke Cat and Fiddle ride

I've not been riding recently due to some chesty coughy type lurgy, that just got worse when I put the hammer down.

However today things seem a little better. Started with my mates (sorry for not waiting)

Just over 3 hours for the 55 miles from Stoke on the Surly fixie.

..........Of all the hiils the last little ones hurt the most.