October / November

After the L2P ride I had a couple of weeks in Cyprus to relax (and see my family over there). Sadly, it was also a chance to investigate further challenges!

Within a few days I found myself with a place booked on the UK Cycling Events Epic 100 mile South Downs Sportive, which aside from the distance, was made tricky by 5 major climbs. The climbs were steep (20%) and occasionally pretty long (in UK terms) and as it was mid October, it was also pretty chilly! Despite being tough, I completed the 105 miles, ate lots of food (purely in recovery, I assure you!) and felt pretty good.

Later that month, as greatly anticipated, L’Etape Du Tour route was announced:

100 years ago, the Tour de France took cyclists to the high mountain for the first time. It was during a long stage (325 km) between Bayonne and Luchon. Octave Lapize, the first cyclist who climbed the Tourmalet, with a 12 kg and single speed bike, didn’t stay on his bicycle.

On the 18th of July, 9500 riders will start from the city of Pau to climb 3 monuments of the Pyrénées : col de Marie-Blanque, col du Soulor and the geant Tourmalet.

The distance total will be 174 km with imposing landscapes: Plateau de Bénou, Gorges de l’Ouzom and Gorges de Luz, summit of Soulor…

Etape 2010 Route Profile

I quite like the idea of cycling 100 miles before tackling Tourmalet; afterall, who wouldn’t!? The time was here to start refreshing the Sports Tours International web page very often, awaiting the opening of entries!

London to Paris

Although this isn’t actually what this blog is all about, my initial road cycling challenge of taking part in a London to Paris bike ride, on the 9th of September 2009, was what has got me into this mess. It’s also what has got me to my current level of fitness.

The L2P was 300 miles of cycling, over 4 days – For the majority of people in the UK, this is a fairly big challenge, as cycling between 95 and 60 miles on 4 consecutive days is no easy feat. In May 2009, I was part of that majority!

I had 5 months of training ahead of me to get myself in a position where I was not only fit enough to complete the challenge but also enjoy it – that means I couldn’t just scrape through it.

The weekly training schedule evolved over the months, adding more miles / time as fitness increased. By August, the schudule was as follows:

Monday: 30 minutes of resistance training (legs) followed by a 45 minute spin class
Tuesday: 1 hour of hill climbing (around 7% gradient)
Wednesday: 30 minutes of resistance training (back & shoulders) followed by a 45 minute spin class
Thursday: Rest day
Friday: 30 minutes of resistance training (chest, biceps, triceps) followed by a 45 minute spin class
Saturday: 40 miles minimum
Sunday: Free day (ride if I wish)

This plan worked well for me as the Mon, Tues, Wed sessions fitted in before work (at the work gym) nicely. It also worked nicely in that by the time it came to do the trip, I was feeling excellent about it, all before, during & after it!

Having said that, on day 3 of the ride, just after lunch I managed to injure my leg, which was remarkably painful.

For the whole morning on day 3 I had noticed that my Vastus Medialis (the one of your quadriceps that sits just above the front of your knee, on the inside) was feeling a bit tight – I figured it was just from a couple of days of hard riding. Anyway, it was a very windy day and the riding wasn’t easy so by lunch time it wasn’t much better. We set off from lunch, hit the first climb and just as I reached the top I had an incredibly painful stabbing sensation in my leg. Essentially it meant that i had to ride the remaining distance using just one leg to apply the power!

Moving away from the only bad part, the rest of the trip was fantastic. The challenge, the people, the French roads and the sense of achievement when you finally reach the tower. It all makes it well worth it. The people I met on the trip were nothing short of amazing, each with their own reason for doing it (not to mention the fact it was a charity event) – If any of you are reading this, I don’t really mean that, you’re all kind of average but I didn’t want to spoil the illusion 🙂

London to Paris

Trouble came at the end when the first question that came out of my mouth was “What’s next, then?” Luckily the actual answer for me was a couple of weeks of relaxation in Cyprus but onvioulsly that isn’t what I really meant….

What’s the point

So, before I go into the real reason for this blog, I thought I’d bring you up to date to the point of 9 months ago, March 2009….

I’ve always been a cyclist at heart, in one way or another. As a kid, even at primary school, I would come home in the afternoon, get changed and be straight out the door on my bike. I don’t mean a quick whizz round the block, but a good 10 mile plus cross country ride with some pretty daunting challenges en route. Ben (a friend from school) and I would have a set route that we would do daily, regardless of the weather.

It was just something that I enjoyed doing – Sure, I used to play football and whatever, but cycling was just natural to me.

At the time I was riding a steel framed suspension-less Giant, before progressing to a steel framed Dawes that I bought off Ben, when he got his full suspension Gary Fischer Yx (I can’t remember which series it was now)

When I went to secondary school, the riding continued (cross country) for a year or so, and eventually got enough money together to get myself a nice new XC bike. This time it was an aluminium framed Trek 7000zx – What a difference that made! I love the bike that much that I still have it now (and use it almost daily as my commuter!). The XC riding continued solely until I found a desire to start BMXing. At which point I found myself on holiday in Florida, watching the X-Games on ESPN. It was August, and my birthday was nearing.

My dad asked me what I wanted for my birthday and naturally, I wanted the GT Vertigo BMX I had seen in a shop window a few days before… It had a gyro and everything! :o)

So, his generosity led me to ownership of a fully chromed GT Vertigo that we had to fly back from Florida. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I rode BMX for quite a few years, riding street and dirt (but never actual BMX). The Vertigo lasted me a year or so before I progressed to a Mongoose SGX in a limited edition blue metal flake finish – I’ve got pictures of it somewhere, but can’t find them right now; it was cool, anyway. An aluminium Y framed BMX…. great fun.

BMX, and the various injuries, took me to the age of 15, when other stuff started taking priority. Sadly, the riding pretty much stopped there for about 8 years, as I went through sixth form and Uni.

Fast forward to 2007 (not that nothing interesting happened in those years!) and I’ve turned 23, moved back home, to West Berkshire, from Leeds (where I was living at the time) because I found myself the right job.

Moving home meant that I was suddenly able to start riding again – Great! The downside was that I had nothing to aim for…

Up to this point, Dan (my uncle) had been down to our house a few times and brought along this crazy carbon contraption that weighed less than my left foot. Apparently it was a road bike….. “Hmmm road riding, you say” – This is a discipline of cycling that has NEVER appealed to me before. Dudes in Lycra spending endless hours on the minimalist saddle; not an overly comfortable way to spend your spare time.

Nevertheless, I found myself with a secret desire to get into it. No sooner had I develop desire (around Jan 2009 by this point) that my mother mentioned that she wanted to do the London to Paris bike ride that September. Obviously I never thought it would actually happen but sure enough, that April, we both signed up to do it.

Bring on the road riding!

Oh – one issue with that. I don’t have a road bike, nor have I ever ridden one. What on earth have I done?!

A couple months, a few rides and a pocket full of cash later and I have myself a new bike – A Giant TCR Advanced 3: