2011-06-25/26 ESCA National 24hr TT Champs

Awesome. Very gripping report.

I worship you Dude.

Do you fact-check? Or is this stuff just... in there?

Obviously I checked the numbers on the RRA site, but I knew the basic details of Gethin's ride.

Well done hippy. Totally mental stuff, but very well done. Looking forward to the full report (though I quite enjoyed the stream-of-consciousness one).

Fair play to you Hippy. Looks like you had a really good team too. How come you opted for 25's? Was it a durability thing?
You've got to be happy with the distance covered, will you have another go at it?

How come you opted for 25's? Was it a durability thing?

For the durability of his knackers, rather than the tyres.

For the durability of his knackers, rather than the tyres.

Ha, indeed. 24hrs on 19mil tubs doesn't sound like much fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWarm9_tp_A

Great ride Hippy – Congratulations!

I was there yesterday and I thought you turned out a really super performance, especially considering this was a first attempt at a long distance time trial. You are certain to improve in the future.

I was also impressed that Hippy could hold a coherent conversation with me shortly after the finish. I was there to support my former clubmate and training companion Rob Richardson (now Chippenham & Dist.Wh.) who we think did about 450 miles, but passed out at the HQ. “Not unusual for Rob at distances of 12 hours and more” his dad commented, showing remarkable *sang froid *as his only son was stretchered away. He was right – Rob was out of hospital later in the evening and I hear is now almost back to normal. After all, it is hard to tell at the end of a 24 whether a rider is unconscious or just asleep.

It’s perhaps worth mentioning that both Andy Wilkinson and Dave Shepherd (3rd place 475 miles) were unsteady on their feet as they approached the podium – that said, Wilco gave a good acceptance speech.

There was one rider on fixed – Steve Abraham (North Bucks RC). I didn’t manage to speak to him, but he seemed to be going pretty well and I think he did something over 400. Just looking at his bike, I’d say his gear was 86”(52x16)

I don’t know when the last 24 was won on fixed, but it remained quite a common occurrence long after most had gone over to gears. Just one example I happen to be aware of – Fred Burrell (Middlesex RC) who was champion in 1956 and 1960. According to the books both wins were exactly 477.7 miles, but I don’t know if this is outstanding consistency or bad proof reading. I believe his gear on both occasions was 79” which I suppose is reasonable if you’re aiming for a 20mph average.

Back to Hippy – now that he can look at a 12 as a middle distance event I think he should have a go at the British Best All Rounder competition next year. (Best average speed over 50, 100 miles and 12 Hours).

What I don't understand is all of this circuit switching. What's the reason for that?

I agree with MDCC tester's comments above, but I think its worth adding that a consideration in all long distance events is that it is necessary to keep the field more or less together.

This is essential in order to avoid the situation where marshals and the finish timekeeper are stuck at their posts waiting for some slow rider who is way off the back of the field but won't give up. In a 100 this can only be done by putting the slow riders off first (and this is one of the reasons for the bloody complicated entry form), but in a 12 or 24 it's done by sending the faster riders on more circuits than the slow ones.

I understand that on Saturday night John Warnock was not sent on one extra loop, which the organisers had intended him to take, simply because he arrived at the junction at the same moment as two slower riders and the marshals were unable to direct him onto the extra section without confusing the other two.

I think we may be beginning to see why its taking some time to get the final and definitive official result!

Well done again Hippy excellent ride.

Clubman, Steve Abraham is an animal and a true fixedwheelnut he often does over 400 miles on a 24hr
Steve's results page
He often uses big gears as well, I struggled and failed on 73" whilst he flew round on an 86" gear, he was a late start and left his rack on as well since he carried two panniers with camping gear to the start :)

[QUOTE=Fixedwheelnut;2249293.

(Steve Abraham)he was a late start and left his rack on as well since he carried two panniers with camping gear to the start :)[/QUOTE]

Yes, I had noticed that his bike was not set up exactly in the way I would choose for myself for that sort of outing.

The same could be said of George Berwick, the amazing 70 year old doing his fiftyfirst 24 on a bike which most of us wouldn't think was good enough to ride down to the shops. It wasn't so much the distance he covered that was surprising, but the fact that after the finish in the HQ, he seemed completely unaffected by an ordeal that would wreck ordinary people. If I wanted to describe him in one word it would be 'chirpy'.

well done.
bit of an extreme way to lose that middle age spread though? couldn't you just eat less?

^according to that vid hippy only went round the once. Cheat!

Just seen this.

Stunning stuff. Highly inspirational.

Good work!

What am amazing achievement, massive respect, I never knew it was possible to do these kind of distances on a bicycle, in fact i don't think I've ever been that far in a car in 24 hours!

Did you weigh yourself before and after? (serious question, not forum ribbing on weight, surely having 'reserves' is good for events like this). It was so hot too that you must have lost a shed load of weight doing such a massive ride?

And also huge respect to anyone that can manage to 'eat' 26 powergels, no wonder you felt sick, I had two on a recent centuary ride and had a face like a baby eating a lemon and could manage no more.

It sounds like you got the bug for the 24 hour events and will be back to beat your distance next year, but for now bask in the glory, well done to you and your support team, proper big ring attitude.

Said this on another thread but well done dude, that was awesome, keep it up!

It was so hot too that you must have lost a shed load of weight doing such a massive ride?

If you lose a lot of weight on a long hot ride, you've done something wrong. I doubt that Hippy would have finished as strongly as he did if he was more than 2kg lighter at the finish than he was at the start.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=performance+degradation+dehydration

Speaking as someone who's idea of an endurance event is anything over 500m, I'm knackered just reading your report. Well done Hippy, I can't even imagine putting myself through something like that. Chapeau!

just been reading through all this.. Awesome effort - Brilliant result.
Chapeau indeed.

Fair play to you Hippy. Looks like you had a really good team too. How come you opted for 25's? Was it a durability thing?
You've got to be happy with the distance covered, will you have another go at it?

My arms are still bruised from the aerobars.
In training I was using Rubino Pro 23s and anything from 30mm 32h standardish wheels to 404s and 808s carbon wheels. Hitting potholes on aerobars were one of the worst things about these rides! Major annoyance factor! So, going for 25s was mostly about comfort for me. There is also the fact that rolling resistance is less for the larger tyres and since speeds are lower, the worse aerodynamics when using fatter rubber is less important. Durability not so much - I was using old, shredded Rubinos for most of my training as I'm too lazy to swap tyres until they're really dead. :)

Yes I will do another. I still have to break the club record.

^ Happy to pace you for the first Km

I was also impressed that Hippy could hold a coherent conversation with me shortly after the finish.

You say that, but until I read your post I'd forgotten I'd spoken to you! I was pretty brain dead Sunday (yes, even more so than usual).

Good to hear that Rob is ok. We had to leave before the presentations and saw him being loaded onto the ambulance as we drove away. Poor fella.

Mike Anton has heaps of event photos.. This is when I was actually looking fast.

BBAR you reckon? What the hell, why not! :)

Well done again Hippy excellent ride.
Clubman, Steve Abraham is an animal and a true fixedwheelnut he often does over 400 miles on a 24hr
Steve's results page
He often uses big gears as well, I struggled and failed on 73" whilst he flew round on an 86" gear, he was a late start and left his rack on as well since he carried two panniers with camping gear to the start :)

Ah, when I was looking for you I spotted him. I saw the fixed drive chain on the finishing circuit and thought it might have been you. As I rode past I said "fixed, you mental" but it wasn't you and he probably thought I was the mental. :)

Did you weigh yourself before and after? (serious question, not forum ribbing on weight, surely having 'reserves' is good for events like this). It was so hot too that you must have lost a shed load of weight doing such a massive ride?

88.8kg on Saturday morning and 90 or 91kg Sunday night. I forget.
I think my digestive system had shut down though as I didn't really want to eat much though tried to get some food and drink in after the race. I was feeling pretty sick and getting lost then stuck in traffic on the way home didn't help.

I put in maybe 10,000kJ and used 16,000kJ so there was some deficit. My body is also working hard to repair itself now so I will probably burn a bit extra for a while but I'm not too bothered about body weight. I can see the advantages of but don't like dieting so I'm not really likely to drop much.