Not much bike time this week, weather has been awful again. BUT the new bike has arrived, so looking forward to getting some use on that. Tomorrow is the 1st Sportive of the season – The Wiltshire Wildcat. So look out for some pictures and details soon.
On the another note, team sky posted some pictures from Ben Swifts ride on their website. (Am not in shot but thought it fun to highlight my position).
Riding in the peloton with Team Sky on the front.
We had a rare day of sunshine this week, (thanks to Sian Lloyd and her weather machine) so I took the opportunity of getting out and exploring the Surrey Hills section of the Prudential Ride London 100 route that I am riding for the charity Mind.(please sponsor me).
I pick up the Ride London course at West Byfleet. (this would be about 40 miles into the actual ride) Here we start to get off the main roads and into the smaller lanes. Riders may need to be a bit careful along here, if there are a lot of riders together. Newark lane and the Ripley road had some tight pinch points. There were a few incidents in the Olympic Road race along this section.
Newark Lane has some Pinch Points
Eventually we come along to Ripley where there is a tight spot (sharp left then right) going through the high street and on towards the Surrey Hills.
Tight Junction at Ripley
So eventually you pop out of the small lanes and join the dual carriage way (this is going to be great if they close both lanes, 1000s of cyclists all over the “Motorway”) and after a small section on the A246 we turn left and you are looking for this sign.
This is where things start to get a bit tough
This is where you might start to cry. The road takes a steep turn over the 1st category 4 climb. The evil thing here is you see the long road climbing ahead all the way up, I find not looking tends to make it “seem” easier. Keep going until you get this view.
Top of the Newlands Corner Climb
The decent on the far side is swift and winds down to the A25 where we continue to Abinger Hammer. A quick right and we are off down to the base of Leith Hill. The nasty bit here is the fact that Leith Hill can be seen off to your left hand side all the time you are skirting down the side of it (A view of what is in store for your legs). Again, the best practice is NOT to look – I think. Eventually you will reach this junction, and this is where there is potential to break down and get off the bike.
This is where the pain really starts
Up and over Leith Hill gets you onto a long winding descent. It gets pretty narrow in places, and there are some sections with high walls either side of the road, so this could be very dangerous if there is a large group. (Be careful people)
I headed back over to the A246 and onto home… (round trip about 55 miles) details are here.
Training ride out in the Surrey Hills
A gentle 2 hour ride yesterday. It was cold again with a freezing wind. I did have legs like lead (probably to do with yesterdays ride – see blog entry below- and the fact its hard to get warmed up with the weather so cold) I found some nice quiet roads at the back of Tadley / Reading and just turned the legs over for an hour and a half. The smell of an open fire at a country pub was too much of a temptation and I stopped for a full on cheeseburger with chunky chips. They had one of those huge fires going and I sat in front of it for an hour to warm up. (I have to confess the pint of Tanglefoot ale did wonders to remove any aches from my thigh muscles). Now here comes the disclaimer: getting back on the bike after a sit down like that is always doubly painful. Your legs really don’t want to work (they would rather be sitting by the fire, full of burger and chips – and you can’t blame them for that) I continued on for another hour and a half and with the temperature dropping a few more degrees as the sun started to drop, I headed back to the car.
Well I took a chance on a tweet this week and went out to see if I could hook up with Ben Swift who was out on a training ride in Esher apparently. It was pretty cold this morning and I was in two minds about dragging my sorry ass out of bed and on the bike. BUT.. its the chances to do stuff like that makes you get up. Stuck the bike on the back of the car, and drove over to Esher. It was a bit of a nightmare because there was a Triathlon expo at the race course as as well as an Evans Sportive event so the place was crawling with cyclists, bikes and runners (funny did not see anyone in speedos – maybe because it was 2 degrees) I took a punt on the fact that if I was doing a ride, I would be heading out towards the Surrey Cycle Way. I kept the pace slow to give Team Sky a chance to catch up (sarcastic tone of voice there). Well was not long before a group of about 30 pick me up with Ben Swift at the front on his Pinarello. I nodded as they came alongside and tucked into the group about halfway back. Was great to ride along with them for about an hour before a I peeled off and headed back to the car. I definitely got a work out, not so much the distance traveled but more the constant pace. I tend to take it a bit easy up the inclines so I don’t kill myself over the distance but these guys don’t even see the hills. Well a nice little ride out and due to my helmet cam being on hand I got this footage. Good Luck to Ben and Team Sky for the 2013 season.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LNPNX0PIgtI width=”320″ height=”180″]
Ben Swift of Team Sky