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Gonna take the bait and attempt a mini version of YAL's traditional write-up.
Everyone rode together really well this year - it was really quite impressive. Although it meant that @FourGreenFields as designated ride captain didn't have to perform many of his duties... I'm sure everyone appreciated him taking on that responsibility.
@SwissChap put in some really impressive turns at the front and for someone who doesn't go group riding, he looked like he knew exactly what he was doing. However, @Camel_toe seemed to take the most away from the day as an unexperienced rider. Was quite humbling listening to him talk in the pub about how much he'd learnt through the day, picking up choosing which wheel he wanted to stick behind and generally how much he pushed through his own barriers to hang on to the group (and laugh through it). Very deserving of the ride award.
Other mentions need to go to @Scrabble taking a big turn on the front on the way out and @cagimaha taking a huuuge turn on the way back in against the headwind alongside SwissChap. And finally @pastry_bot for giving up part of his work Christmas party to stare at men's bums all day.
The group riding so well go's some way to explaining why we got everyone from start to finish, admittedly with kinder weather than past editions. Was a boost each time @clubman was spotted either driving past in his 2CV or poised with camera ready on the roadside - a shame we didn't see more of him after lunch thanks to the confusion of road closures but sure his ride report and pics will be excellent as per usual.
Thanks to everyone for riding, organising and making the ride happen!
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It was great to meet everybody and apart from a few words at the start which was basically please point at potholes the job as ride captain was redundant as the group road very well and as the weather was reasonably kind it allowed us all to make it to the end.
Big thanks to those that did the work out front and well done to those that were 50/50 for the full ride in the morning but stuck with it for the whole trip.
Hopefully so you out on the road in the near future though next weekend i'll be on gears.
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Nice photo - sounds like you all had a great day. Not at all grim, unlike the feature on the horizon which I think is Grim's Ditch just outside Crowmarsh Gifford?
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Good ride everyone. The blessings of the puncture Gods after our many sacrifices last year made a big difference. And an extra layer. And obviously it was very dry so that helped too... Sorry for no mudguards :( , but hopefully I will have retired this bike by next year, so well done and thanks to those people.
Nice to see some new faces and legs attempt the ride, and for the most part to ride in such a cohesive unit. I think the band of thnrc lending their experience always helps here.
As ever thanks to Clubman for his support and encouragement, and for ensuring the ride happens! (Obviously some others help here.) And for putting up with the slightly shambolic organisation of a forum ride, and all that goes with it.
Highlights for me were some good solid 2 up riding, the screeching kites, and that misty wooded section after Stoke Row. Maybe we could have some sunshine next year?
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most impressive was watching @SwissChap fly down that hill at warp speed, drop his chain and unclip both feet yet still stay rubber side down. i had mudguards and my tights were brown after seeing that.
as mentioned previously this was my first ever group ride and was a damn sight harder than i thought i could push myself. im sure most other groups would have told me (quite understandably) i was gonna have to bail at some point as i was holding the group up (one more hill might have done it). so thanks all for the patience and i felt like i had just enough in the tank to hold on at the end with the thought of beer overwhelming the cramps
thoroughly enjoyed the day and i promise next year ill get somewhere near the front to shield someone else for at least 5 minutes
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Report for HDIJ 2019.
It’s now Sunday afternoon and I can see that my report is almost redundant since Jaeyukdapbap’s covers most points well – even so I hope I can add something.
It’s certainly true that this group rode well together. You were brave enough to ride two abreast (not so common nowadays) but looked ‘tidy’ from behind. It sounds as though on the headwind return trip the work at the front was equitably shared between the stronger riders – I was impressed to hear that you averaged 17 mph on the last leg from Twyford to Staines, all the more so that this had been achieved without dropping anyone.
Waiting at the top of the Christmas Common climb I was expecting to photograph at least some on foot pushing their bikes, but this didn’t happen. It seems to be a feature of single gear riding that you can nearly always manage…….somehow. This is a great mystery to the many who have always used variable gears.
It was very disappointing for me to lose the group on the way back. On the way into Wallingford I overtook because I felt it was necessary to check where the heavily advertised ‘Road Closed’ was, and to see whether the riders could get through so that I could calculate where I might find them again after I’d had to drive the long way round. As it turned out there was no road closure at all and I took what seemed to be the natural route. Somehow I got behind the group when I thought I was in front of it and so wasted time waiting when I should have been chasing. This is always a risk when following – it’s worth pointing out that when there was a puncture stop at Twyford I must have been fairly close and a text message would have made me turn up pretty quickly. I suspect there is an error in the cue sheet but I’ll take that up with YAL later.
I think one reason the group worked well was that about half of you had been on previous HDIJ’s and in any case were experienced group riders. Another factor was that you had chosen generally similar gearing, about 71” * being the most usual. An exception here was Swiss Chap on 76.6 which I would have thought too high but clearly, if you’re strong enough, you can cope, as he proved by doing a lot of work towards the end. Respect! Second highest gear was Camel Toe at 74.8 which I think he was finding tough going, especially in the last few miles. The lowest gear was Pastry bot at 65.6 and as mentioned before he again seemed the most stylish rider, so this may be a connection worth noting. I have rounded off all these numbers to one decimal place and taken the wheel size as 26.5” which is typical of 700’s with 23mm tyres. One significance of this is that Scrabble’s 49 x 18 (72.1) should just scrape past a machine check for a 72” Medium Gear time trial, whereas the traditional 48 x 18 only gives 70.7 and this could show up on the result board!
This brings me to racing and I know I’m repeating myself a bit here, but this is for the benefit of new readers – I think there must be at least some of those. When I was doing this sort of riding there was always the idea that we were preparing to race and that was the incentive to take a battering (as most of us did) week after week. What might have been termed the ‘Training Run Season’ lasted from early January until mid March and by that stage it would have seemed a criminal waste of effort not to enter some actual races. From what I saw yesterday I’m sure many of you could race with at least some success. It seems that only Pastry bot is actually competing (cyclocross, but may consider other disciplines). Among the others Camel toe said he hoped to race this year and Ruserius (who would have won King of the Mountains if there had been a prize) hopes to ride Paris Brest Paris, which although not strictly speaking a race, is certainly a much higher aspiration than doing a couple of 25’s.
So, speaking as some one who rather regrets being past it, my message to the rest of you is: go out and race while you’ve got youth and fitness and there are still some events left to enter. If you don’t, I fear you may regret it later on.
My pictures are a bit disappointing, but some will follow.
- It’s worth calculating your gear rather than just quoting the sprocket sizes – otherwise you won’t know, for example, which is the biggest gear out of 39x13, 48 x 16 or 54 x18. (they are all identical).
- It’s worth calculating your gear rather than just quoting the sprocket sizes – otherwise you won’t know, for example, which is the biggest gear out of 39x13, 48 x 16 or 54 x18. (they are all identical).
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What you didn't see: my woolen hat also slipped over my eyes at the same time, making it a bit of a guessing game to stay on the road at all. Luckily my grandma used coarse wool so I could kind of see through it. Apologies to whoever went "woah" as I swerved a bit to the right just as they went past.
Yeah. That wasn't the safest thing I ever did. But you live and you learn, right? If you live. :D
Also congrats on making it all the way through, you looked like your legs were in a bit of pain in the pub - it takes determination to hang on and push, but on the other hand being in a group helps with that as I know from my rowing days, when I was racing in Fours and Eights.
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Thank you, especially for the quick help with a spanner when my chain dropped! (I did carry the tools I needed, but getting stuff out of those roll-up saddle bags and putting them back takes absolute ages - especially with cold fingers. So this made the process a lot faster)
Regarding the gear ratio, it is definitely on the high side for this ride as I noticed up the steepest part of the hills! I actually did think at some point I'd have to get off but then some better climbers passed me which gave me some extra determination...
I'll see about racing, it's not something I've been thinking too much about so far, though I am not against the idea. I am currently trying to build up a TT bike, and I'll see whether that might lead into it.
Eager to see the pictures in any case!
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You aleady have a TT bike - the one you rode on Saturday.
I think it's a big mistake to try to have the best possible bike before you start racing - it leaves you with no excuses and nothing to look forward to. However brilliant your racing career is going to be, you will not start off by beating the established stars - it takes time to learn how to race.
It's interesting that you have been a rower. I've come across quite a few ex rowers who have done well in bike racing. I reported on last year's Victor Berlemont Road Race (the longest and best National B race in the south of England) and two out of the top three (including the winner) were former rowers.
Time trialling is the easy route to start racing, although anyone with talent and ambition should really think about moving on to road racing fairly soon.
If you (or anyone else) would like to ride my club's Good Friday 25 on the West of Windsor course (not that much further than Staines) please send me a p.m. and I'll give you all the information you need.
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Regarding the gear ratio, it is definitely on the high side for this ride as I noticed up the steepest part of the hills! I actually did think at some point I'd have to get off but then some better climbers passed me which gave me some extra determination...
This ride has previous for inappropriate gear ratios!
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Yep, think it must be. This was my favorite section, with the misty woods that followed after. The weather was turning for worse, wind in our faces, it was starting to feel like a hard day but the lanes were really quiet.
I've straightened my photo out as the horizon was bothering me.
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You’re just about to cross the Ridgeway Path, that’s the tree line, just before the climbs up to Stoke Row :)
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I agree with regards to the bike, but luckily there's no risk of me getting the 'best possible' bike anytime soon - I can't afford that. I just need something that's independent from my commuting bike, doesn't carry mudguards, and will not keep me from getting to work in case I crash it. Not sure I'll get into actual road racing, for example I'm not sure the strategy element of it is what I'm looking for. As I said, I'll see how it goes! For now, I'm just enjoying my bike rides. :)
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Well done, all. I'm currently not fit enough to ride this, but hope to be back sometime.
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This ride has previous for inappropriate gear ratios!
Not only this ride ... :)
I think someone rode 50/14 on a ride once.
I remember @conservative_values beating everyone up Ditchling Beacon when he was on 48/16.
I'm sure we could do a longer list ...
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... and we need (user)names to faces, please. Is this the best group picture?
SwissChap
seager
Camel_toe
Howard
Christono
Ruserius
jaeyukdapbap
FourGreenFields
JoePablo
pastry_bot
clubman
Scrabble
crossedthread
Chalfie
Oliver Schick
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@Si88
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@LobsterShorts
That was a great ride, well up there with the memorable ones for me. Thanks for all the hard work from you fellas who spent a lot of time at the front!