Etape Anglais

For those of you who managed to get your names down on the Cycle Surgery promotion yesterday for tickets... check your email, they've just sent out the link to purchase tickets.

Anyhow, event details:
http://www.everydaycycling.com/events.aspx?fid=598

The event in brief

* Event Date: 1st July 2007
* Ride Length: 120 miles
* Starting at: Greenwich
* Ending at: Canterbury

The Route

Greenwich - Woolwich - Dartford - Gravesend - Rochester - Aylsford - Tonbridge - Royal Tunbridge Wells - Horsmonden - Sissinghurst - Tenterden – Stubb’s Cross - Port Lympne - Farthing Common - Canterbury

Entry Costs:

£40 including voluntary £2 donation to the Geoff Thomas Foundation.
Entry cost includes:

* Fully waymarked, marshalled route
* 4 feed stations
* Free refreshments en-route
* Transponder chip timing
* Rider numbering
* Commemorative T-Shirt
* Mobile Mechanics and Stations provided by Cycle Surgery

And being sneaky... as I'm sure this will happen on other cycling sites... the purchase link if you can't get to your email quick enough is: http://www.cyclesurgery.com/ article/mcs/art/61

I've broken the link on purpose by putting a space in it... the idea being that they don't see the traffic having come from this website. Just remove the space to make it work.

Get in very fast... it's first come first served.

DK: Are you getting transport ba ck??

Yeah. Well, I booked the coach.

If I feel really great I might ride... it's only 60 miles on the flat with Shooters Hill at the end. But this may be a dumb thought by an over-enthusiastic person.

Ride? Ride back tio London? WTF? You're fsck I can't type drink sometuimes! Festival strength Brothers is nice. Is nice! I like!

hippy Ride? Ride back tio London? WTF? You're fsck I can't type drink sometuimes! Festival strength Brothers is nice. Is nice! I like!

some one translate for me

60mi back to london? after 120???

:d

We are being kicked out of the building. Is nice. I like.

It really depends how hard the 120 are. I'm going to map the route and examine the climbs and the total altitude gain. It's hills that wipe me out and leave me fucked, not distance.

Ahh.. is nice. Sprinters can't climb. You can tow me there and I'll take the win over the line :D

I just looked at this:
http://www.everydaycycling.com/news.aspx?fid=659

Has a cross-section of the route. Looks like there are a couple of killer hills thrown in. I guess that's me on the coach then.

Cool. Coz I booked it. I''d read it was full up though.
Going out now to get more fscked up!!! God I love my job sometimes!!!!

Wowser, just found out that London Dynamo have 60+ riders in this. Nearly all scheduled for a 6am start time. By sheer numbers alone (in club strip) we're going to look daunting. It also increases the chances of completing it all in fine shape, it's all so much easier when riding in packs of experienced group riders.

Nice.. I'll have a big bunch to sit at the back of! :P
Pfft.. like I'd make it to a 6am start. ;)

I did 80 miles on Sunday. It was knackering.

Need to do a lot more hills before the Etape. That said, none of the Surrey Hills give me any problem now.

I vomited a lot and eventually got around to drinking (beer) and jumping around while the Stones (old cnuts!) played. Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon no riding. Good prep. or what?!?! :S
Hills? Urgh.. I'm fscked. Where can I find big hills? Kent? I gotta go south not west?

This is a short version of my club's Sunday ride. There are three hills, Leith (long, comes up on you when you're not ready), Ranmore (short and steep, unforgiving) and Box Hill (long and easy).

Surrey Hills

...please don't called Box Hill long and easy David.
after an 8am surrey hills ride it looks like f'king Everest!
and those fast boys DONT STOP FOR CAKE either!!
I mean....whats the point.

Well, if you choose to do the 8am non-stop fast ride, that's kinda you're own fault.

The 9am lot stopped for rock cake and tea this last Sunday. Though we deserved it by then, no-one could quite remember the route and I'm pretty sure at one point we were lost and no-one was admitting it. I've done enough Sunday rides and I've never been on the roads we went on this last Sunday.

Box Hill, it used to kill me, a few months riding fixed made it feel a hell of a lot flatter than it used to. I used to never touch Ranmore either, but now that's the only one of the three I think is worthy of being intimidated by.

LOL re the lost!! i know what you mean too. i did good with the 9am last summer and ended up leading once....without much of a clue where i was going. Struggling to drag my arse out of bed on a sunday at the moment. My old spesh roadbike is simply collecting dust. And dont those gear thingies make going up hill a bit boring? but hey, you've got a Serotta.

Oi, the Serotta didn't cycle for me, it's still my legs!

But yeah, it does help. Mentally if not in real terms (still eating ice cream, I'm hardly disciplined).

This last Sunday though, I found myself treating hills differently. Instead of dropping gears before the hill as per usual practice on a geared bike, I just spun up in the lead up to the hill, overtaking everyone else, and then attacked the hill in a silly gear, only dropping gears when I started to feel a bit defeated. Not one of the hills required me to slip into granny gears, and my out of saddle technique is much improved. Riding fixed really makes a difference on the way you confront hills. I used to creep up the things in a silly low gear.

I'm not dumb enough to claim I'm suddenly great at hills, just that I'm a hell of a lot better than I used to be.

David, I knew where we were going (although I'm not certain the people choosing the route did). I had thought taking the main road for a while shortened the ride but I'd still done the usual 135km (84mi.) by the time I got home. And Ranmore's a lot easier than its reputation I reckon. There are plenty of easy stretches between the steeper bits.

Hehe, I'd just never done that route. Never gone up that dual carriageway, and it seemed a bit skittish as the new riders that joined us weren't great at a tight 2 abreast formation and kept weaving out when cars were rocketing by. Scared the bejesus out of me it did.

I'm far more familiar with the longer route, which also means I'm prepared for the hills as I know when they're coming up on us (though Box Hill is obvious).

Hmm, this reminds me, meant to catch up with Peta.

Cheers for the link DK. It's gonna be hard to follow though, stopping every 5min to check for turns, etc. I'm really sh1t with navigation.
Does your 9am Sunday bunch allow non-members on?
I'm booked for L2B this Sunday anyway.. maybe I really should ride back instead of taking the soft option? I'll probably be too drunk ;)