2010-06-19 Sat 9.30am Start - Oxford Graduation Ride (Because Long Rides are Fun)

1. (in spirit if not in flesh) Cornelius OxfordDonfoot
   
2. damolyen library
   
3. Arducius
   
4. Sainsburys Ed
   
5. Jung + Chum.
   
6. skive
   
7. K-Dog
   
8. St. John's College H
   
9. FridayMarch26th
   
10. dimi3
    
11. ziska
    
12. braker
    
13. dicki
    
14. pajamas
    

For what it's worth...

1. (in spirit if not in flesh) Cornelius OxfordDonfoot
   
2. damolyen library
   
3. Arducius
   
4. Sainsburys Ed
   
5. Jung + Chum.
   
6. skive
   
7. K-Dog
   
8. St. John's College H
   
9. FridayMarch26th (+Dorset Dash)
   
10. dimi3
    
11. ziska
    
12. braker (+Dorset Dash)
    
13. dicki
    
14. pajamas
    

Some forum peeps will be on the *Dorset Dash *(Oxford-Bournemouth) 9pm on the Saturday of this ride. Anyone else fancy both?
Oh bollocks.

Why did I think this ride was a few weeks after the DD? It's on my calendar and everything. Bugger.

So my options are now:

1. Pull out of this ride.
   
2. Pull out of the DD (but have friends coming from Bournemouth to Oxford to do it with me so...)
   
3. Apply a liberal coating of HTFU, eat shit loads, and do both.
   
   

At the moment I like the idea of doing both, but not sure if I'll have the legs for it...

1. (in spirit if not in flesh) Cornelius OxfordDonfoot
   
2. damolyen library
   
3. Arducius
   
4. Sainsburys Ed
   
5. Jung + Chum.
   
6. skive
   
7. K-Dog
   
8. St. John's College H
   
9. FridayMarch26th
   
10. dimi3
    
11. ziska
    
12. braker (+Dorset Dash)
    
13. dicki
    
14. pajamas
    
15. Clubman
    

arducius.
hello buddy.
i'm rolling this ride on the saturday then headed to the stones on the sunday night.
after the DD i'm headed from london to dover cross the pond and then cycling up to amsterdam.
i have no idea if my legs can take it all i know is that they will!
flapjacks all the way.
do both, you'll have plenty of time to recover and will enjoy both rides.
easy mate.
steve

Myself and a visiting friend who is over that weekend might be on for this.

I assume this being LFGSS that everyone on the above list is riding fixed?

Thanks for the words of encouragement, skive. I'm thinking I'll do both and just eat loads to try to avoid the bonk!

dublinkevin, I'm planning on doing this fixed as I guess most others are. Having a look at the route there is only one hill that might defeat a fixed gear. The maximum gradient is about 17% which is a bit of a slog, but usually manageable.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/79255

Myself and a visiting friend who is over that weekend might be on for this.

I assume this being LFGSS that everyone on the above list is riding fixed?

I doubt it, usually there are some people doing these rides geared, or freewheel.

Did the Southend run (my first long run ever) and really enjoyed it .....can't do Cambridge because of work......reckon I'll be on for this then.....won't have a single speed built by then so it'll be the GT with gears again.....but this time with a new saddle !.....man but that hill looks pretty evil

looks deceptively not steep...

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.623399,-0.931091&spn=0,0.066175&z=14&layer=c&cbll=51.623332,-0.930905&panoid=jN2TS5JhM3a4M8C3EhZhmw&cbp=12,294.56,,0,0.56

13% in some parts...

Thanks spybot......looks do-able......or so says the voice of inexperience....anyhow I'm in

those graphs make things look impossible.
good for an impression of how your ride might be or was but with a bit of grunt you can climb up anything.
google maps is great for checking hills though.

Yeah they always look steeper on the elevation profile, but then there are 60 miles squished into the width of your screen...
I do that hill (but on the next road to the left, B480) on my commute. Obviously wont be quite the same but is not too bad with gears. Not been up it on the fixed yet but should be manageable.

I might have to bring the road bike for this ride if I want to survive the Dorset Dash too.

This is all very encouraging.....so much so that I'll even put in a few miles before this one....but first I'll make it official :

1. Gearless Society
   

I may have missed it, but is the plan to take the train back? (Or to ride 200km in one day?) If so, can we all bring our bikes on the same train? I'll be visiting from Canada and don't recall the train/bike rules over there...

I don't know what the "official" plan is but...
You'll probably struggle to get all bikes on the same train, but trains are fairly regular between Oxford and Reading, and then trains between Reading and Paddington are every 10 mins or less so shouldn't be too much waiting for a train with space for bikes.
Sometimes the train staff are nice and will let you cram as many bikes on as will fit, but then sometimes you get the staff who wont take more bikes than there are allocated bike spaces.

I live in Oxford so won't be heading back to London. Those people also doing the Dorset Dash are welcome to come to my flat for a mound of pasta before we set off. Though it might be a little crowded if theres more than a couple of you!

I may have missed it, but is the plan to take the train back? (Or to ride 200km in one day?) If so, can we all bring our bikes on the same train? I'll be visiting from Canada and don't recall the train/bike rules over there...

I think you missed my posts numbers 15 and 17 above in this thread.

In England it's still quite normal to refer to this distance as 125* miles *which doesn't sound quite so daunting, but afterwards, when the ride has become an anecdote, you can revert to kilometres.

Right i now need to be in wokingham by the afternoon.

So I'm still up for this but I may need to push on if the pace isnt high enough, or if it's really slow then i may end up just turning left at marlow way and riding down there.

and if im planning on going over 100miles i might consider riding with some gears, but i'll probably just take some htfu pills, gear up and maybe put my windcheater wheels on.

what time do you need to be there by? If we're leaving at half 9, I'd have thought we should be able to be in Oxford for early afternoon at an easy pace. You could get the train to Reading and cycle from there, or train all the way. Obviously if we're held up then it's nice and easy to turn off at Marlow like you say.

i think realistically by about 4 would be ok, so assuming we can keep an average of about 14mph all the way to oxford i should be fine if i turn up the pace on my way back down to wokingham.

I hope 14mph isnt too ambitious for a forum ride, and dont want to put anyone off coming along as these rides are supposed to run a leave no man behind policy.

so if the pace is too low for my purposes i'll just head off in a lone break and navigate meself there!

1. (in spirit if not in flesh) Cornelius OxfordDonfoot
   
2. damolyen library
   
3. Arducius
   
4. Sainsburys Ed
   
5. Jung + Chum.
   
6. skive
   
7. K-Dog
   
8. St. John's College H
   
9. FridayMarch26th
   
10. dimi3
    
11. ziska
    
12. braker (+Dorset Dash)
    
13. dicki
    
14. pajamas
    
15. Clubman
    
16. katie-coo (fingers crossed)
    

A call from work has seen me pull out from the Cambridge run...so if I forget where I'm about to bury my phone I should definitely be able to make this one...

1. (in spirit if not in flesh) Cornelius OxfordDonfoot
   
2. damolyen library
   
3. Arducius
   
4. Sainsburys Ed
   
5. Jung + Chum.
   
6. skive
   
7. K-Dog
   
8. St. John's College H
   
9. FridayMarch26th
   
10. dimi3
    
11. ziska
    
12. braker (+Dorset Dash)
    
13. dicki
    
14. pajamas
    
15. Clubman
    
16. katie-coo (fingers crossed)
    report comment
    
17. (in spirit if not in flesh) Cornelius OxfordDonfoot
    
18. damolyen library
    
19. Arducius
    
20. Sainsburys Ed
    
21. Jung + Chum.
    
22. skive
    
23. K-Dog
    
24. St. John's College H
    
25. FridayMarch26th
    
26. dimi3
    
27. ziska
    
28. braker (+Dorset Dash)
    
29. dicki
    
30. pajamas
    
31. Clubman
    
32. katie-coo (fingers crossed)
    
33. gearless society
    

All I'm saying is there's a route which doesn't involve Marlow Hill, and takes in Henley and some other places too...
Its longer, but Marlow Hill has bad forum karma...
If you want it, let me know, but I'm out- I'm actually moving my girlfriend the opposite direction that day.

1. (in spirit if not in flesh) Cornelius OxfordDonfoot
   
2. damolyen library
   
3. Arducius
   
4. Sainsburys Ed
   
5. Jung + Chum.
   
6. skive
   
7. K-Dog
   
8. St. John's College H
   
9. FridayMarch26th (+Dorset Dash)
   
10. dimi3
    
11. ziska
    
12. braker (+Dorset Dash)
    
13. dicki
    
14. pajamas
    
15. Clubman
    
16. katie-coo (fingers crossed)
    
17. gearless society
    

1. (in spirit if not in flesh) Cornelius OxfordDonfoot
   
2. damolyen library
   
3. Arducius
   
4. Sainsburys Ed
   
5. Jung + Chum.
   
6. skive
   
7. K-Dog
   
8. St. John's College H
   
9. FridayMarch26th (+Dorset Dash)
   
10. dimi3
    
11. ziska
    
12. braker (+Dorset Dash)
    
13. dicki
    
14. pajamas
    
15. Clubman
    
16. katie-coo (fingers crossed)
    
17. gearless society
    
18. Aleksi