Ascot Windsor

hahaha, Ved has got lost :)

how did you find that out?

he text me looking for BDW's number :)

another great effort at keeping a group together!? not a good day to be lost, alone..freezing and vulnerable..

must be hippy's fault

great turn out, around 15 riders took of from frosted RP.

muppet of the day: me. forgot to put on my overshoes when i left in a hurry this morning. good pace to keep relatively warm throughout. thanks to everyone making it a nice winter ride and special thanks to clive for organizing.
ved, hope you are ok. we got your msg that you are on your safe way back.

helmets and lycra that's so uncool dudes.

Great time and thanks for Clive for leading the charge

Five of us left Smithfield, claus, gustav Adam, his girlfriend (sorry I missed her name) and me. Nice, gentle warm up over to RP. We were met there by nine others. Adam's gf went riding round the park and we set off. Any group with the Famous JC and claus was sure to go at a pace and by the time we got to Chersey the decision was taken to split into two. Perhaps wrongly, I was sent ahead with the JC/claus group and was promptly dropped, caught up in time for Virginia Water where I tried to speak to give directions and then we pressed on only for me to be dropped just after Sunningdale. This was a pity as the advance group then took the same wrong turn as hippy and others had and while they were going in the wrong direction also dropped Ved. I got to an empty cafe and was joined a few minutes later by the Grupetto riders. A phone call and a wait and the JC/claus group minus Ved arrived.That bcafe is lovely. I could have stayed all day but just had time to warm up eat a slice of fruit cake (NT fruit cake ftw) and we were off. Ved caught a train as did a couple of others. One and only puncture just after the cafe. Then a really nfast (by my standards) ride back to the park. The young and thin went uo Dark Hill. Fat old men and those supporting fat old men went through the middle butt then did a sprint from Robin Hood Gate. Four of us then tore back along the Embankment.

Despite the hiccups, a really enjoyable ride. The pace coming back was such that one of my highest bpm readings was just before Kingston Bridge when, very kindly, fbr dropped back to pull me back to the group but I was struggling so much that I just sprinted past him.

Burnt 7000 calories.

Gears made it much easier than last week but the pace was harder.

Thanks everyone for tolerating my slowness and for forcing me to my limits.

Sounds like a good ride Clive. Is that the end of your Xmas training plan? How is the recovery looking?

I've ridden to one extent or another every day for the past two weeks. Next Sunday I'm having a run out to Ascot but in a car with school trunks as we despatch our darling daughters for a term of incarceration. Next weekend will just be the RP session and thhis week will ony be short commutes.

Today was my first proper geared since August. I am so much stronger than I was but I need to start focusing on some hill work. I have learnt what happens when you reach max bpm: your legs stop. I need to work on that happening less frequently.

Sounds like I missed a good ride out Clive, sorry I wasn't around to come along.

Looking forward to riding more miles in 2009 than I did in 2008 so hopefully will be out with you soon.

Sounds like I missed a good ride out Clive, sorry I wasn't around to come along.

Looking forward to riding more miles in 2009 than I did in 2008 so hopefully will be out with you soon.

I was just about to write the exact same post. Looking forward to the next one.

Despite the fact I got quite badly lost, I still enjoyed the day. I lost my spirits cycling up the A308 trying to find the cafe. I even followed the tire marks in the frosty road, but when I hit a sign saying welcome to Egham, i thought it wise to abandon ship and head for Windsor station. By this time I had been on the bike for a while and without enough food I was staring to lose it and feel nauseous faint etc. I was seriously happy to find a coffee shop at the train station where I fuelled up on a flapjack, wispa, large latte with extra syrup and a muffin! I've never felt in need of sugar like that before. I caught the train to twickenham and got on the bike and absolutely burned it to richmond straight into a hot bath...

I basically fucked up when I declined to ride with Wayne and Desi. I should have stuck with them, because when the fast group got the OK to ride ...err fast... there was no catching them, after my brief stop. I lost them and then lost which way they went, took the WRONG turn and then waited for Wayne and Desi, on a WRONG road. At that point I decided to HTFU and just ride to Windsor, which despite being quite tough was still enjoyable. The countryside was refreshing and I saw a shit load of other club rides out on my way to Windsor. I approached Windsor through A332 and Windsor Great Park which was a fantastic ride into Windsor.

When I got into Windsor I phoned Gus (who was lost at the time!) and then Murtle to get BDW's number. I got seriously cold trying to find numbers on the forum on my blackberry so I've learnt a lesson there. By then I knew I was in the wrong part of Windsor and needed to head to Runnymeade, but I had little hope of finding the guys. Ultimately I always had the option of getting the train back so I was not bothered.

Thanks to BDW and Gus and Murtle for their help and Clive for organising. This is a really really nice ride which takes you through some lovely parts of Surrey/Berkshire.

Looking forward to doing it again properly.

Glad to be home now though ;)

Next Sunday I'm having a run out to Ascot but in a car with school trunks as we despatch our darling daughters for a term of incarceration.

smart way of dealing with the shortage of hot water at you place. win-win

Ved

Glad you got back safely. I had hoped to pick up any stragglers and would have but for the wrong turn that you all took. I did see a rider in the distance as I descended through Windsor Great Park and sprinted to catch him. When I eventually did , it turned out to be a grey haired old man with flat pedals, and cycling clips on his jeans.

Next time: Ride together to Virginia Water and then ride to the cafe at your own pace and then ride back from there together using Wayne's rather pleasant and flat route.

...The young and thin went uo Dark Hill...

oh, mid-30s still young? and i was 'thin' about 15yrs ago. anyway, thanks ;)

15 years ago I was going on for 18.5 stone. It is all relative. Thanks for your help and encouragement today.

no worries, clive. good ride. did you like the grupetto route on the way back? smooth clean roads makes for a swift ride back! was that faster than your return leg last week? felt easier for me this time... suppose it was cos we were in a small group which incl hippy and BMMF last week

i got dropped up Dark Hill again! had nothing left in the tank. really need to lose some weight and need to do some hills!

Lovely day out, thanks very much for organising guys, definitely inspired me to join Rollapaluza CC.

My GPS logs - there and back again!

Really, really enjoyed it! Bath, glass of wine, this feeling is one of the reasons that I really, really LOVE my bike.

I like the altitude graph for the route back rjs.

Heh, that hill was lovely, knee is a bit painful at the moment, but the ascent and descent in the park really capped things off nicely :-D

fbr, I really enjoyed the route back. Nice down by the river and FLAT. I like FLAT. It was fast but relatively easy except for that bit just before Kingston where I gave my all. I was still able to sprint along the Embankment but must say happy when I turned into my road. The bath water was hot. I lay there for half an hour. Just had supper. All feelings about the ride are now positive!

rjs, what computer are you using? I like the display.

It reads as if I missed a nice ride today, sorry I couldnt make it but bowling with the family was fun as well. I will endeavour to keep an eye on the forum and get along to some longer rides, recover well and see you soon.

You were missed mj. We needed a Rapha rider.

rjs, what computer are you using? I like the display.

That's what I'm doing with the data from my Edge (I have the orange 705), I'm planning to hack some better stuff into it (which doesn't require lots of reinterpreting of data), and see whether anyone else is interested in using it.

I really don't like motionbased, as I said in the cafe, due to not being able to upload a route without labelling it, but my software has a bunch of limits at the moment!