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Great post, thanks :)
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Pretty amazing. I'm always amazed at these 12 hr / 24 hr TT. I don't know how people do it much respect.
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on the subject of the Icknield Way - anybody got a map to hand of the route and how to ride it?
the Rapha write-up to my eyes was lacking directions on how to ride the route yourself..
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Although this thread was not related to the Icknield Way, a subject on which I am no expert, I’ll respond for two reasons.
First, it gives me a chance to mention again that my clubmate, Rob Gilmour, the hero of the 2008 post above, is still defying his advancing years: see my post about this year’s Hounslow Open 25 ( #4933 in the TT thread.)
Second, I always like an opportunity to advocate the use of maps as opposed to electronic devices.
You are quite right to say that the Rapha write up is sparse on detailed information, but this is perhaps understandable when it is realised that the Icknield Way, like many ancient things, is a bit of a vague concept. In the section of O.S. map below you will see that there are at least two ‘Icknields’ – Upper and Lower. However there is also the Ridgeway Path, at this point running along the lower slopes of the Chiltern escarpment, and I suspect that this too may qualify as the ancient road.
So, I’m afraid the answer is to look at all the O.S. sheets (1:50,000 scale) between the start and finish points, and then decide which version you want to use.I believe that although satnavs may be good at telling you how to get to somewhere you already know about, they are useless when it comes to telling you where you want to go. A small amount of experience with good maps will teach you to recognise roads that look interesting to ride on, and this principle should be applicable to the Icknield Way.
I don’t know much of the route, but I have been along some of the Ridgeway Path in the area between Watlington and Chinnor. It struck me that it looked like the road described in Lord of the Rings when Gandalf’s party are approaching the inn at Bree, and since Tolkien spent much of his life in nearby Oxford this may not be fantasy.
It sounds a great project – get the maps!
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on second-reading of the Rapha write-up, saw some links that i'd missed first time..
.. to the Icknield Way Trail PDF route (also on Bing maps),
..the book that inspired the Rapha ride,
Zz
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No.
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^ You must spread rep etc
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About
Icknield 12 hour Time Trial
Posted by
Didn't touch my bike last Sunday. I went to the Icknield 12 to help a clubmate - Rob Gilmour (Hounslow & District Wheelers) who was riding. He won the event with 259.35 miles. (Full result on CTT website).
He used gears, so what's the interest to London Fixed?
Rob went like a metronome all day using lowish gears and looking very smooth, even in the last hour when most of the others were getting pretty ragged. I thought our man looked like some one pedalling a low fixed gear, and then it struck me: Rob's previous club was the Clarence Wheelers, famous in the past for producing superfast fixed wheel riders like the Gambrill brothers and more recently Tony Doyle (world professional pursuit champion in 1980 and subsequent successful career in Europe as a six day rider). I asked Rob about his time in the Clarence and sure enough: "Yes, I used to ride with Tony (Doyle). My first sub hour 25 was done on 82 fixed - 57.48."
So maybe what I was watching last Sunday evening was the long lasting benefit of the fluid style developed by starting a riding career on fixed.
I saw one rider who was actually brave enough to start the 12 on fixed: Peter Harridge (Icknield RC). After the finish he told me he was on 52 x 16 (86.4). He had reached the 100 mile check in about 4 hours 44 minutes, but when he punctured at 120 miles he packed because "I thought I might not achieve 240 miles".
If people tell me they are interested I will try to learn how to put the pictures of the event onto this site.