A Hard Day in January

^ guess I wouldn't have needed it with a bit more planning. All that was in it was additional clothing layers, tools and some food. In the event I only put my jacket IN, and nothing actually came out! Next time I'll have to remember the '6 Ps' rule!

Thanks to the others for doing my job for me by reporting the ride while I was faffing around not producing anything.

The Route.

I’m really impressed that Oliver could produce so accurate a route considering he was on unfamiliar territory and riding in fairly tough conditions. However it’s not quite perfect and I think this explains the discrepancy in the mileage. I’ll try and get this corrected shortly.

Now to the main purpose of this post.

The Meritorious Ride Award.

No one knew about this because I’ve only just invented it. I appoint myself sole arbitrator and my decision is final.
So, to consider all six of us:

Clubman is immediately disqualified by being the judge.

Paul and Illy were the two strongest and therefore found the ride easier than the rest of us.

Oliver also rode strongly. However, beforehand he told me that he was a weak climber, a poor descender but had reasonably good stamina. Only the last of these statements proved to be true, so although his ride was meritorious, his attempt to bluff us into believing him to be less capable than he really is must count against him.

Old Git (Jeff) is certainly worthy of consideration. Although clearly not up to his glittering top form (which he refers to as being “really pinging”) he still rode well. I find it hard to believe that anyone of his great age can be supple enough to descend as fast as he does on a 66” gear. I’m grateful to Jeff for joining us at all. He had promised to come some weeks back, although I believe when it came to the day he really didn’t feel like it, but since he had said he would come, he came.

However, my decision is to name Conker as the winner of the award.
Even though he was suffering a bit on the way back he didn’t complain and clearly pushed himself to stay in the group. He did the rest of us a favour by giving us an excuse to reign in Paul’s relentless 20 mph pace, which I for one was beginning to find stressful after about 75 miles. Obviously Conker handicapped himself a bit with his bag. - I did see him take something out of it: a massive padlock and chain which he very helpfully used to secure *our *bikes when we went in the pub. I guess that alone must have weighed a couple of pounds.

Apart from the bag, I think with some little adjustments an a few more miles in the legs we might have trouble keeping up with Conker – he’s certainly got the grit that’s necessary for this game.
(P.S. I’m afraid there’s no actual prize, just the honour)

The Next Instalment.

London – Oxford and Back.

Since we got within 10 miles of Oxford it would clearly be well within the ability of a group like ours, using this route, to do London -Oxford and back in a day. Warmer weather and more daylight a bit later in the year would be helpful for this project. I’m not specially keen to organise, but I’d be pleased to advise on the route, and I’d try to come along.

A Sportive.
Recently, some of my clubmates have discussed the possibility of promoting a sportive ride. No conclusions have been reached yet, but it occurs to me that maybe this ride could become a sportive. Obviously its never going to attract big numbers, but possibly the challenge of a tough ride on a basic bike in difficult conditions would attract enough perverse types to make it worthwhile.
This would need to be on a Sunday.

Just in principle, would anyone here be interested for January 2011?

Not having to navigate whilst riding = hell yes.

Cheers, Chris, conker's a deserving winner, but I have to plead full honesty here:

Oliver also rode strongly. However, beforehand he told me that he was a weak climber, a poor descender but had reasonably good stamina. Only the last of these statements proved to be true, so although his ride was meritorious, his attempt to bluff us into believing him to be less capable than he really is must count against him.

I did mention that it is steep hills that I have a problem with--I didn't expect them to be so shallow. The one or two that were a bit steeper were very short. I was thinking more about the sort of hills one encounters around the North Downs, which put me in difficulty every time. As usual, I got stronger towards the end of the ride ... and when we were descending, I slowed down to be far off the back every time, and you probably just didn't see me having to catch on. I found 42/16 impossible to spin without braking quite a lot. However, I'm keen to get stronger in these departments this year--I already improved a fair bit last year.

Just in principle, would anyone here be interested for January 2011?

Yes.

Look forward to the amended route!

Of course I wasn't really suggesting any sort of subterfuge on Oliver's part. In fact, before we set off he could not have appreciated my own low cunning in picking a route which might have looked difficult but really avoided any steep climbs which *I *would not have been able to manage.

Ah well, Chris, I think you rather fail to appreciate the role of the honeytrap double agent in all this. ;)

**Saturday 15th January.

**Just a date for your dairies at the moment.

This is the day I propose to hold next year's run. You will note that I have moved to a weekend to see if this widens the appeal of the ride, otherwise I expect the everything to be similar to previous years - so look at the posts above in this thread to get an idea of what the ride is like. It is intended as a fixed wheel outing.

It would be useful to have an idea of numbers, so please let me know if you're interested.

More details later.

Awesome clubman, I've been waiting for this to come up again. Count me in and hopefully Object as well.

depending on dates of snowboard trips this year i'll be doing this.

scribbles in diary

I would love to do this.

**Saturday 15th January.

**Just a date for your dairies at the moment.

Looks great, Chris!

I hope I'll be able to make it.

It's just that, being vegan, I don't have a dairy. Will that be a problem? ;P

scribbles "facepalm"

don't think il
l be doing this, this year out of sheer embarrassment.

in like motherfucking flynn

All those definites above ^^ are perfect for a ride such as this.

I am a mebbee.

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

I hope the bad weather in December hasn't put all thoughts of bike riding out of your minds as the HD in J is now only just over a week away.

I plan to use the same route as last year Staines - Berinsfield -Staines (Oliver's description above is almost perfect), except that we will use the HDW Clubroom as our rendezvous. This is at Staines Sailing Club, 105 Chertsey Lane, Staines. It is fairly easy to find: go to the south side of Staines Bridge, turn left (if you've come over the bridge) and go about a mile towards Chertsey. The entrance is marked SSC on cream painted pillars which are just after a left hand bend and near some keep left signs: the clubhouse is about 100 yards down the drive. There is parking and a loo. Just in case of difficulty note my mobile: 0796 3636 784.

I hope to be there by 9 o'clock for a 9.15 am. start.

Damn! Not going to be able to make this again. I'm going to be at the redbull mini drome.

Hope you have a good one and I hope to join you next year.

I'm having worries over my ability to do this, but will be taking steps to prepare myself over the coming week. If I feel I'm likely to be a liability I'll pull out instead of spoiling the fun for others.

hmmmm....

maybe.

Crap. I scribbled in my diary/dairy (just for Schicko) but have to be honest, I forgot all about it and have scheduled something else over the top.
:(
Sorry. Plus, I've got beef with the Staines Massive.

Only just saw this, will aim to make it! On a slightly lower gear this year (48/19).

Not having to navigate whilst riding = hell yes.

So I'll count you in for the 15th then?

I'm having worries over my ability to do this, but will be taking steps to prepare myself over the coming week. If I feel I'm likely to be a liability I'll pull out instead of spoiling the fun for others.

I'm worrying about my ability to cope - but if I were certain I could do the ride easily there wouldn't be the same interest in doing it.

I think that if you believe you *may *be able to do the ride you should take your courage in your hands and give it a go. Fortune favours the brave, as they say. Remember this trip is not going to be a tear up, but a steady paced ride on which, if some one is suffering, the others will try to help rather than laugh and put the hammer down.