A Hard Day in January

^ if you say so. I couldn't keap up (Jan this year)

With the experience gained last year and without that big padlock and chain you shouldn't have any trouble at all next Saturday. Hope to see you on the day Ian.

Hi Cris,
I would like to do this but I'm busy next saturday so won't be with you. Hope you all have a good days riding though! I'll be thinking of you all when I'm out the next day on the "North London Hills" ride.

bugger, i'll be in italy snowboarding...

enjoy! (or should that be endure?)

Tom's only interested in suffering.

I love it! Good luck!

I love it! Good luck!

Thanks, but are you going to come?

The 2011 HDin J will now take place on Saturday 22nd January, a week later than previously advertised.

I've taken this decision for two reasons.

1. The ride clashed with the Red Bull Minidrome competition, which was significantly damaging the number of riders who were able to take part in my event.

2. I have not yet recovered from a severe cold, and had already decided that I would be incapable of riding on the 15th. Naturally, I would not like to be thought to be wimping out, and delaying a week gives me at least a sporting chance of doing the ride.

I'm sure there will be some one who has specially set aside the 15th and who will be bitterly disappointed that I have unreasonably altered a long established date. Well, I can only apologise deeply to that person, and say that there seems to be a majority view that the 22nd would be a better day.

So now we must all hope for reasonable weather, as anything might be postponed once, but twice is beginning to look careless.

The 22nd may be free in my diary....

still not back then...

Chris

I cant do the 22nd, I am doing the Instructor Training with CTUK.

What time are you likely to be back from the HDW clubrun this weekend, I may try to come out with you for a spin for that.

James

More time to prepare myself. This is a good thing.

Ha, I was just going to post apologies for this week-end. I'm not at all sure I'll be able to make next week-end (I'll probably be working), but here's hoping!

Oliver, we'll be very pleased to see you if you can make it.

All seems ok for this Saturday, even the weather doesn't look too bad.

I just hope some of you can make it.

I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure there will be some very enjoyable January suffering to be had, but I can only hope the weather is a shade better than my last adventure with clubman!

Sorry, guys, I'd completely forgotten that I'll be helping with Burns Night preparations (Hackney Cyclists' annual fundraiser). I thought I'd be doing some work, anyway, so wouldn't have been able to make it on any account. :( I hope to be back next year, though. Have fun! Get some suffering in! [/Rapha mode]

Don't forget this is tomorrow!

Looks like wrapping up warm would be a good idea.

... well, did this happen?

Did't do it - missed the bump but thought I'd be too weak for it. Based on today's riding I would have been fine. Gutted.

Did't do it - missed the bump but thought I'd be too weak for it. Based on today's riding I would have been fine. Gutted.

Tom, I haven't ridden with you but by all accounts you would have been absolutely fine on this!

Saw Illy and Stelle this afternoon and they both rode it, then rode today's round of the London Cyclocross League. Chapeau!

^
oof!

By "oof!" I mean: Fuckinghell. That's a hard day in any month!

Two days, this ride yesterday, cross race today.

clubman will no doubt post another beautifully-written ride report soon.

The third Hard Day in January ride attracted disappointingly small numbers from the forum, but the two riders who did come showed star quality.

We used almost the same route as last year: from Staines via Twyford, Sonning, Stoke Row, Nuffield, Wallingford to Berinsfield, and back on the A4123 to Henley, then Wargrave, Twyford and back to Staines – about 85 miles. We left around 9.30, arrived at the café just after mid-day, stopped for nearly an hour and got back to Staines just before 4 pm. The return would have been quicker had I not blown up at 70 miles. I only got back before dark with the help of intensive care treatment from Paul.

So here are my thoughts on the Most Meritorious Ride award. None of the Hounslow riders (same personnel as previous years) are in the frame. I am out because apart from being the judge my ride was rubbish. Jeff’s form was not great, although he still seemed the most efficient in the group when it came to high speed descents: remarkable souplesse for some one in their seventieth year. Paul was handicapped by having to rise at five a.m. to go to work and then not leaving Heathrow until twelve o’clock. He met us as we started the long climb from Crowmarsh Gifford up to Nettlebed, and ‘u’ turned to join the group. No cosy tea stop for him but, of course, he didn’t complete the full distance.

This leaves the two forum riders, Illy and Stelle. Illy has come on all three of these rides and goes from strength to strength. We knew he was going to be a strong rider when we first met him in 2009 and the promise he showed then is clearly being fulfilled. I hope Saturday’s ride will prove a useful (even if small) part of the preparation for his ride in the Tour of Sardinia stage race in April.

However, in my mind the star of the show was Stelle. In all my experience it has been very rare to come across women who are prepared to undertake this type of run, let alone succeed in riding as a complete equal with committed hardcore racing men. There have been others in the past, but we would be talking of women of the quality of Ethel Brambleby (see my obit. in the How long will you continue cycling thread) Eileen Sheridan, Beryl Burton and Julia Shaw – I have listed these chronologically, not by merit. So far as I could tell there was no moment when I could detect any weakness, any reluctance to go to the front, or any possibility that when not leading she might lose contact. The nearest she came to showing discomfort was on the faster descents, but I’m sure that a few tweaks to her fixed wheel bike could improve matters here. I can only apologise for the fact that there is no actual trophy yet, just the honour of winning.

I had considered making this ride into a fixed wheel sportive, and this was the reason for moving the event to a Saturday – in the hope of attracting more riders. It seems that an 80+ mile ride in January is just too daunting to be well supported, and so I would be interested to hear from you whether a similar ride later in the year, run as a sportive, would attract serious support.