2010-07-24 - Dunwich Dynamo DD18

Coach pic definitely not posed. Two of my hairs are in that shot. While you're rolling, if there were an extra fifteen miles you wouldn't notice. In fact some people went off course and did do miles and miles extra. But by the time you reach the beach and your body realises there's no more pedalling to do, it shuts down, and there ain't too much you can do about it*. When we got off the coach at Smithfield, you could see that every single window had a big greasy smudge on it from the hair of someone's slumped head resting on it.

@lynx: bike van was bulging, and some bikes were carried in the cargo section under the coach. A major part of the operation was the patience with which TSK and certain holy others bubble-wrapped and slotted the bikes together into the van. Even with the coach cargo space it was a very close thing. And there were empty seats on the coach (from DNS people, I guess)!

@Oliver: Trevor told me he was turning off because he planned to do some 'wild camping'. He probably has a lever that converts his Zzipper fairing into camouflage netting that stretches over the his BikeE.

**Long Ride Reports
**http://www.lfgss.com/thread47883.html#post1547489

If you have a long ride report, but are a bit shy about putting the full whack into the main DD thread, then please put it here. If you have more to say than just shout-outs to other forumengers, e.g. gobby stuff to say about:

• what you experienced
  
• how you felt
  
• what you ate
  
• what you saw
  
• your pre-ride prep (or lack thereof)
  
• your bike
  
• your kit
  
• your pics
  
• if you could ever imagine managing London-Dunwich-London
  
• strange Essex people - what's up with them?
  
  

Feel free to put a link for your opus in the main DD thread, so anyone interested can hop over and have a look.

If you've already posted a report here, like Clefty or Bluequinn, you can repost or make an extended remix in the new thread. We'll read it again!

No, I haven't posted my own report yet...

*Unless you're made of carbon, steel, ally, Digger, FridayMarch26th, Archie's Grobags or similar material.

Best moment? Being overtaken by Team Brompton who were flooring it along before the feedstop. Seriously, how fast can 20inch wheels carry you? The mind boggles.

Our 16x 1 3/8 wheels propelled us at an average of 27.4 kph over the duration which pissed off plenty of carbon warriors off no end.
A coulple of pub stops, the food stop and the fantastic new addition of the bacon roll and cuppa stop late on plus a fair few others equated to a total time of 9.5 hours.

Second DD for me this year. Got to the pub earlier this year to soak up the atmosphere, and two pints of Guinness. Always a lot going on, and some beautiful bikes to ogle.

Left at about 8:30 along with a steady stream of people, and got to Dunwich at 5:45. Definitely a lot busier than last year, and a lot more lycra.

Legs felt okay considering the lack of training, but my neck and shoulders bloody killed, think they suffered more because of the lack of longer rides than my legs.

Rode geared again, wimp'd out on single speed.

Highlights:

Beef Chow Mein in Gt Dunmow, it tasted great, will definitely stop there next year, and only £3.80.

Swapping half a cornish pasty for a bag of Haribo at Gt Walderingfield....I needed sugar, they needed salt.

30mins of riding alone near gosbeck. I think I reached a state of deep meditation, and reached inner peace!

Whisky on the beach at 5:45 and a bed of pebbles.

Lowlights:

my mate nearly getting us in to a fight with some gary boys in a corsa, after he hit in to their car. Thanks to all that stopped for support, the longer they argued the more people were there for back up!

Same mate dropping the best bit of beef from the chow mein we were sharing. (Might not ride with him next year!)

The queue for the cafe, but I went for a BLT bagel and cake from the velo cafe instead, both were lovely.

Feeling absolutely boxed today, need more sleep.

Review, actually more of a factual description of the night/day:

Got to London Fields at about 7.30, milled around looking for folks, came across Dimitri, Mo_Mo and Owen Jowett, who led me to the larger group. Decided to chip off a little early, at about 8.15, with VB, momo and dimi. Seemed to be absolutely caning it for a good half an hour, until we breached the thick London traffic and hit some freer roads. As the sun began to fade, I fell back a little, settling into a tidy pace, latching on to a bloke and a woman. They had no idea I was there, but for about 2 solid hours I chugged along in their wake, shifting up and down a very small but useful range of gears. The inclines were easy enough and the drops satisfying. I wanted to stop, as I had sweets and water in my bag, and wanted to get at them before I felt I needed to, but didn't want to risk losing my tow. Eventually the craving for Jelly Babies took over and I took a 2 min pit stop, did a *piss*, then caught up with my quarry.

Honestly not much to report, just quite satisfying night riding, the feeling of time passing quickly and the miles clocking up. Quite meditative actually. Then a twinge started gnawing at my left knee. By the food stop, it was agonising. Hooked up with VB and another fella, refilled my water, and attempted to ride it off, but 10 miles of one legged pedalling later, I roll into Sudbury, make contact with TSK, and found the van. Great timing, if I'm being positive. There, two or three groups of forumites checked in, dropped off loads, refilled water and generally put off embarking on the second leg for as long as possible.

Clefty and Fluff were tracked via the magic Apple iTablet™, and once they were through, and the night sky began to lighten, we hit the country road to Dunwich. TSK is, no doubt, an accomplished driver, but I'm a terrible passenger and was basically shitting it around those tight lanes. We got the SOS from Owen at about 5am, something about a loose leg or crank. Rolled into Dunwich half an hour later, filled up on sausage and coffee, napped on the beach, discovered how menthol is farmed, and that the stones are indeed very spikey on the old feet, thanks to Oliver's merry dance to the sea, then, like VIPs, sauntered onto the coach, settled in, then rolled the hell out of there. At Smithfields the bikes were right behind us and unloaded within 10 mins, then home for a bath and a rub-down.

Absolutely superb weekend, I'll do the whole thing next year, even it it means packing a pre-loaded needle with morphine. I didn't need the official food stop, but a coffee and bacon roll would have been welcome. Perhaps our own little bbq at the mid-point/end next year, it someone's up for it?

Swapping half a cornish pasty for a bag of Haribo at Gt Walderingfield....I needed sugar, they needed salt.

that was me mate, thanks a lot for that, was relying on the cafe stop for the salty food, but got lost and rejoined the route and missed the stop, gone too far to turn around, also at that point had no water, and had to live with it.
that cornish pasty saved my life

another great forum event
saw loads of familiar faces along the way
thanks to sam tim john and roman for all the fun along the way
the tunes from brakers stereo at 3-4 am just gave me the extra energy i needed as i had to pedal fast to keep close to the sounds
great to run into damo / matt / wools / marco and others just near the end, made the final chase to the beach fun
breakfast in dunwich then an hour or two's kip on the beach
wanted ( well not sure if thats the right word ) to do a few more miles and headed of southwards to ipswich that final 30 miles was painful / slow and long but got there in the end

nice to see oliver blue quinn rob mike hassan down at the seafront

and finally what a hero TSK was all the way from sheffield to drive the support van no sleep and then back to sheffield the following day above and beyond the call of duty sir

1st Dunwich for me. Decided at approximately 3pm on Saturday that actually I would quite like to ride the damn thing- in retrospect probably not the best preparation, no meals all day- had bowl of honey nut cornflakes at 7:30am on Saturday.
Cycled to Parents house to wait for some furniture men.
Looked at my old pair of Bib shorts, holes all through, ran to Putney cycles, picked up pair, new tyres, back up lights and new gloves. Couldn't find helmet anywhere. Borrowed dad's helmet. Noticed my legs were still tired from Fridays 10k run and 2k swim. Got bag together, including normal ish clothes, no food still, filled water bottles with Homemade Lucozade: (water, lemon juice, salt, sugar) and one with water.
Realised it was getting late, pegged it across London to pick up some more stuff, pegged it to London Fields.
enjoyed the nattering and the BS talking- nerves made me very excited and energetic. Downed a Coke, my first 'food' all day, and bought a packet of sweets, thought fuck it- I'll find a petrol station.
Waited for Fluff for a while, when she got there we all left, stopped for a catch up at a roundabout on the Lea bridge road for the massive losses we'd made in London traffic. 2100-2115

Legs felt awesome again, so started at a gentle pace down a long straight road with Branwen in tow (Without him, the ride wouldn't have worked at all). Cycled at a pace that may have been a bit fast, esp as it was just us doing the work, found a bunch from Swansea CC, who were over- but knew the route, and we followed them from about mile 30 to mile 50, when they realised they'd passed the official feed stop. They kept trying to lose us, so I explained that we essentially had no clue where we were. Got to Sudbury, and I don't think I've ever been so happy to see a White Van!
saw Mo_Mo and dmitri off out of Sudbury, went to a Petrol station. Opened bag of sweets, bought another, drank a bottle of coke and refilled both water bottles- Lucozade and water. Leaving Sudbury, we were a bit lost, so held back, and just enjoyed the darkness and the quiet.
Had a nice chat about the horrors of rowing training.

Found a group riding at pace, and latched on- Dulwich Paragon group 1 of the night. Rode with them to the bacon sarnie place where I was happy to see forum god VB. That pace of the dulwich lot hurt me on the hills and from mile 80 or so I was suffering really bad cramps and spasms, but was not willing to stop- luckily they mostly got lost, so catch up was easy enough.

Also met some boys from Norwich CC who had ridden down and then continued on past Dunwich back home- they were aiming for 300 miles that 24hrs, all looked knackered, but real friendly, and the chat whilst in the DP group was fun.

Left the sarnie stop, and was regretting not putting on layers. Long descent, made me really cold. just could not get my legs to warm up. DP lot tired out and we pushed on, having done alot of the front running at this point. Branwen's legs were miles better than mine and so he was leading and I was just hanging on. Legs got better as we found ourselves in a massive calvacade of riders taking up the entire road, maybe 20miles out. Here, picked up the pace again, and led Branwen through the massive group (I get really nervous in big groups of riders), and on the slightly larger road latched onto a very fast DP lot. Tucked in, taking turns at front and enjoyed the quickest miles of the lot. They clearly set their minds on racing at this point and from 10 miles in, hardly a word was said.
Lost them at the 2.5 miles to Dunwich sign on a hill when my legs just refused to stop cramping, but I couldn't and wouldn't stop turning them, I was grimacing with pain at this point. Kept nearly catching them, and saw a group behind me I was determined to not have catch me. Pushed hard, alone for the last 2 miles, and devoured all my water. Got to the Dunwich sign- Fist pump. Got to the beach, knackered. 04:40. c. 7.5hrs.

Legs were spasming, cramping, all kinds of bad things... Beans on Toast- thanks Branwen, as I had only brought a credit card, and then a while waiting for the van. I thought my legs had recovered so set off with B originally to his village, but then a change of mind as I was feeling good- so struck for Ipswich. Stupid Idea. Bonked hard, and violently, a fair way past Saxmundham- the last place I could remember with a train station. Cycled back, devoured food from a Martins and watched cyclists head on to Ipswich. Got on train, home!

Feelings: Nothing but pure elation. It was an incredible ride. We were continually excited by the people on the side of the road cheering us on and waving and joking with us. The lads at the petrol station and the lady who were shocked by the idea, but so supportive. The drunk chick 'cycling at this hour isn't fun- you should be drunk!', at Sudbury, all added to the night. But the best thing was the smiling cyclists and the nice chats and the sharing. The lady from DP, who had done a TT in the morning and still had legs to fly up hills was an inspiration!

On My preparation, or lack thereof- Stupid. I was hurting as my body had nothing to give. The ride itself was much longer than anything I've done for a while, and I was very happy to just finish it. Whether I'll do it again is questionable. I had fun, masses of fun, but it was like rowing- I was having fun because I was masochistically inflicting and overcoming pain for the adrenaline. Maybe next time I'll have joined DP and I'd like to have done more in a group as the first half took a lot out of me. Also my rapid indexing job was shit, and i had slipping gears for ages, which was amusing rather than irritating- I just claimed to have mind control gears. I really didn't see much, just assumed how beautiful that ride must be in the daytime. Oh and the Nestle dogfood place.
As for the lack of sleep- sure I was tired, but my mental acuity remained pretty good, and i was much better than the overnight to brighton, at the end of which i could hardly think.

Cheers for all the support, and all the smiles.
TSK especially.

sorry about the essay.
to all who did it fixed, you are legends, and definitely heroic work. There is NO way at any pace I could have done it fixed.
not a single chance.

How gutted would I have been now - had I cancelled like I was about to (at 7pm on Saturday). Big respect to Andrew and David - you made the journey home a lot smoother and comfortable.

It was hard work, but it would have been much harder without julian, sam, tim, and john! Big thanks guys - great effort.

that was me mate, thanks a lot for that, was relying on the cafe stop for the salty food, but got lost and rejoined the route and missed the stop, gone too far to turn around, also at that point had no water, and had to live with it.
that cornish pasty saved my life

No worries mate, happy to help, glad it sorted you out. The haribo sorted me out for the rest of the ride too.

Oh, and I forgot to say... Kenickie.

this was my first year doing it with gears after riding fixed in 07 and 08.

god bless campagnolo gears.
god bless 653 tubing.

[everyone asleep on the coach]

Genius photo!^.

The sod or sods who spread drawing pins around at Sudbury should be reported to the popo. Srius.

Well done all of you. Wish i was there.

^I wish you were there...

The sod or sods who spread drawing pins around at Sudbury should be reported to the popo. Srius.

This happened on the Etape Caledonia last year and caused puncture chaos. Story here. IIRC they caught the guy that did it in the end, and some kind of justice was doled out.

Yep, I heard all about that. Apparently there's some resistance to the roads being closed by some locals.

^I wish you were there...

sob

Tissue?

That stuff was 'nuun'. It helps re-hydrate, and it looked like you needed a little help at that point.

Velocio (concerned): Do you have anything to eat dude.
Me (grinning): Yeah I've just had six scotch eggs and a snickers
V (in his head): No you dumb motherfucker, I meant to do you have something nutritious, something that's going to get you to the end.

When you asked me if I had any water i think you were half expecting me to say, "No, but I have some ginger beer."

Great day, some many nice and wonderful people. Reenforced by snobbish view that cyclists are the upper echelon of society.

Great day, some many nice and wonderful people. Reenforced my snobbish view that cyclists are the upper echelon of society.

Once my dad had made it to the end he couldn't stop telling me how nice everybody was too. Definite upper echeleon stuff.

The sod or sods who spread drawing pins around at Sudbury should be reported to the popo. Srius.

I wonder if it was the charming gentleman we met on the bridge just before Sudbury.. started having a go at us about the noise (what noise?), and almost threw a punch when I suggested that shouting at us might be waking his neighbours..

How gutted would I have been now - had I cancelled like I was about to (at 7pm on Saturday).

I was about to post the same thing - I'd felt like carp since Thursday and felt like I was already bonking on Saturday afternoon. I set off anyway figuring I could turn back to North London easily enough... next time I felt ill was on the coach back! [note to self: cycling cures all ailments (other than knees obv)]

Colossal thanks to Velocio and TSK for the fantastic organisation (even though I didn't meet with either of you until 10am) - it truly was above and beyond the call of duty and turned a potential nightmare (getting home) in to a simple and pleasurable one. Even the suggestion of using Latitude made a big difference to me - although it did look like we were all scrambling through completely different fields at one point! I didn't even originally sign up for the coach as I thought I'd be too slow on SS - so I was personally quite pleased to hit the beach @ 5:45 after leaving @ 9pm. This was my first long night ride so I had no idea how long it would take me...

Lowlights:

My front light torpedoed off my handlebars and split in two within 10 yards of leaving my house! Then I so very nearly forgot I was already clipped in as I struggled to retrieve it from the road. I noticed the neighbours giggling and clearly lip-read the phrase "what a bellend" being uttered. They were correct - and I nearly went back to bed at this point!

Overshooting the feed stop by 10miles and realising I'd already drunk most of my water. I slumped into a bush and ate several powerbars to cheer myself up... [note to self: take more normal food next time]

Memory fail on the beach - put my bike next to the 'only' boat on the beach, met a friend and got chatting, returned an hour later to find the LFGSS crew loaded up and my bike 'missing'. Scrambled around for 10 mins thinking it had been stolen. It was at this point I noticed the second boat - and my fucking bike sat next to it where I'd left it. For the second time that night I think I lip-read "what a bellend" being muttered (correctly!).

2 separate official looking photographers taking pictures of me on the beach - I think I was rocking the "close to death" look at this stage - my poor mum will kill me if she ever sees these!

Highlights:

Pretty much everything else...the group riding, the stream of red lights, empty smooth roads, warm weather etc...

Fixing the aforementioned front light with TOILET PAPER at London Fields (it held together with only one reapplication along the way).

Hopping from group to group and realising that nearly every one had a rider that seemed to know the way.

That everyone missed my own version of the "sharp stone shuffle" at 6am.

Jeez this has turned into a ramble so I'll stop now. Lovely to meet the few of you I did speak too - sorry, I was pretty shy/knackered/ill so didn't say much! :)

Quote of the night:

Essex girl bellowing into her mobile phone as I went by... "Oh mai dayz - I swear to god right, I have just seen the fucking Tour de France go passed innit!"

Just wanted to say thank you to coach/van organisers - a pleasure after the official coach last year.

Great ride, glad to have done it fixed, though not necessarily an experience I'd repeat... 120 miles on an almost brand new Brooks was also not a great idea, though not unbearable.

Did anyone else see a man jogging barefoot at around 3am in the middle of nowhere in Suffolk? May have been a hallucination, but I'm pretty sure I did.

We were behind you for the last few miles (red Soma and black Cannondale)

anyone see the bloke(kid) on fixed, potentially no brakes, jeans and a T, front light, someone gave him a rear at some point, no bag, no water that I could see?
if you're on here, you're mental- in the nicest possible way.

Was he on a green fixed? He passed us near the end with nothing but a small bottle of water in his jeans back pocket. Nutter (again in a good way)

Our 16x 1 3/8 wheels propelled us at an average of 27.4 kph over the duration which pissed off plenty of carbon warriors off no end.
A coulple of pub stops, the food stop and the fantastic new addition of the bacon roll and cuppa stop late on plus a fair few others equated to a total time of 9.5 hours.

We were riding along when there was this 'whoosh! woosh!' like the typical roadie train... and we saw you guys absolutely flying along. Turned to each other with looks of stunned amazement.

Nice work keeping that pace up over the distance... that's the same total time we did, but I guess we stopped less because we weren't going so quick overall.