2010-07-03 - Swaintoux!

That would be about 132 laps, non?

I didn't bother working it out. I'll take your word for it. He'll be late for dinner then.

10 mile ride in, 20 mile intermission after lap 19, 38 miles of up and down and then 20 miles back via kensington with jamie. On three weetabix and some banana bread. Little bit hungry now, and i think if i could feel them, my legs would probably be screaming at me.
Truly epic day, lovely weather, atmosphere and people. Shame about the hill though.

And, annoyingly, Garmin shows 2:37 of climb time, but my piss stop end of lap 12 would have dropped me into second. Well climbed, friday.

That was a really nice event. Thanks to Pinkgottimobbs for conceiving/organising it, and all the helpers/supporters.

I did 40 laps, then had a sit down and a large Coke (thanks Dropout) and a pint of ESB (thanks Polky) and contemplated another 10 laps, which had been my final hypothetical target. Faith texted to say she was starving and wanted to go out for a meal asap (Tynan's at his nan's place all weekend), and that was good enough for me. Another 10 would've been pretty grim. I think I did just short of 2700m climbing in 60 miles.

Fuck there was a lot of traffic today. Fuck it was hot.

Amazing rides by everyone, especially Texas, Pinkgottimobbs, Friday 26th March, and the tandem crew. But everyone went well outside their comfort zones from the looks of things. Chapeaux all round.

TBH, I'm much happier riding up that hill once in under 2 minutes, but you've got to try something new occasionally, I suppose.

I have no intention of riding that fucking hill ever again. It's dead to me.

As its been missed elsewhere, well done to the crew who were there at 9.30 and drank until now! We supported the supporters well with bacon from the bbq and held our own with the drinking crew of Highgate.

Bloody well done!

Oh, well done for anyone who managed the distance and beyond! Although I feel my ability for ordering lamb tika bhuna at this point is a victory for my sobriety and far outweighs any sober conquest!

Lush, the more I see it, the more I'm convinced your avatar is man trailing a trouser leg.

I'm drunk and I see a man with a limp leg. That is all.

Curry was fucking awesome, no wonder I couldn't do 24 laps ;-)

That was a top day. Thanks to all organisers, helpers, cheerers, prize getters and fellow riders, made for a day of smiling and impressive riding.

Prizes were unexpected and im really grateful.

Big cheers to all for making me feel welcome as well.

Brap! 16 ont tandem with Stix. Mad props to those that finished and extra props for the winners and those who carried on past the big 24. Bad luck to wills multiple punctures killing your time. Epic win to finish on someone elses bike though.

Amazing day.

Well done Ed & Stix, I am suitably impressed.

Why thank you father.

as bmmf said chapeaux all round. what a great day indeed.
thanks to gottimobs for putting it on, albi for all the - rather unexpected - prizes at the end, all the people time keeping and supporting at the top (additional water was a life saver... it was hot).
also thanks to brent and jan for helping with various punctures and loan of the bike for the last lap.

Congratulations to those who finished the madness, impressive work all round. Also much respect to those who put in decent efforts with tandems/hangovers/woefully inappropriate gearing.

Put a few pictures on flickr - Swaintoux 2010

for reasons unbeknownst to me, i thought this was the 3rd of August.
so well done crew... and i feel like a tool.
x

Hats off to everyone who took part! Who was the winner of the fixed comp, and what was the time?
And were there any issues with traffic / police / annoyed locals, or did it pass unnoticed?

Ha what a great day bloody crazy though !
Congrats to everyone that took part and to those who finished hats off to you !
Only so far we could get on the tandem but was pretty happy that we managed double figures in the end !
Thank you for bacon sarnies bananas water ......and to all who cheered us on
Still smiling and happy to say the legs are not too tired ......obviously didnt try hard enough
Awesome day xx

40 laps fixed!... nutjob

Displays of heroism from all involved for sure, as has been said above, everyone went deep into the cave. Especially those who embraced the madness and completed with amazing times. Arvy also deserves special mention for completing the 24 with style, grace and decorum as one would fully expect.
Big thanks to stix for being great company and a fantastic rear admiral. I don't think I'd have got half as far without thee. I think we should take over the tandem hill climbing elite now.

*Jung considered what he was about to say as he approached Mobbs. He knew that just casually mentioning it would be enough for his idea to become reality.

A few months later a date had been set, a spokecard designed and a list started.* *

It was called 'Swaintoux'. The concept was simple enough, cycle up a hill in North London enough times to ascend the equivalent height of the legendary 'Ventoux'. Tommy, this one is for you...*

What a fantastic day!

So many highlights and a massive dose of Big Ring Attitude.

Thanks to everyone involved. Jung for sowing the seed, PGM for organising, Alb for sorting the prize stash, The Lush and all of his fellow supporters, all the forumengers that showed up from time to time, Tom (I think) for the plentiful cakes, The Flask for use of the Beer Garden, and lastly the group of Twenty or so cyclists which were more than up for the challenge. 'Chapeau!'

I've no doubt a great many personal goals were shattered during the day, and I'm sure if we'd told some of you a couple of months ago that you'd be taking part and completing all the laps you would have laughed at us.

Cake, with his cheeky smile, for making it out for awhile having been discharged from hospital the day before.

Arvy's gentlemanly amble, very much taking it in his stride.

Will, who without those mechanicals would surely have been quicker on his Fixed than any of the geared riders.

BMMF, for crimes against sanity.

The two random chaps, Colin and Alex that showed up either randomly or having read about the event on another forum and taking part and completing the entire Twenty Four laps. So much for the five you intended to do.

Mattty, there were no issues at all really. The landlord of The Flask did receive a couple of irate phone calls from a local, who rather than have the stones to talk to us directly he chose to stand on the other side of the road and use his mobile to call the pub. This chap may or may not be the dogwalker in one of Brun's photographs. We were obviously disturbing his dogs delicate demeanour.

PGM should have the time sheets and will hopefully post the results up here.

As the evening wore on at The Flask a whisper could be heard, 'So, Zoncolan next year then.'

Zoncolan is only 1750m..

The garmin got confused by the puncture stop, so I had to reset it, but here are the two uploads from it.

The second one is the main one, as the first one has the puncture just before m second climb.....

[ame]http://connect.garmin.com/activity/39259578[/ame]

[ame]http://connect.garmin.com/activity/39259574[/ame]

Well that was one of the stupidest things I have even done.

Lap 1 felt good, the new lower gearing was feeling nice and the spin down the hill wasn’t too bad. By lap 3 I had decided that there was no way that I could finish 24laps, no way at all. Quick stop at the top for a drink (one of many stops as I didn’t have bottle mount) and someone announced that Sarah didn’t think I could do it. I agreed that I couldn’t do it either.
New target then, 10laps, double figures, nearly respectable. At lap 10 I was feeling pretty good, my legs were hurting but I was still climbing well and taking a drink at the top most laps for a 20second breather. New goal, half way 12 laps, and then 15 laps. At lap 15 it was getting harder to drag myself up the slope and my arms were giving up quicker than my legs. I should have gone for a lower gear, I should have gone for a lower gear. This was going round and round in my head. I was in trouble. At the top I was starting to feel a bit dizzy and when I stopped for a gulp of water and a bite of flapjack my hands were shaking uncontrollably. Lap 16, only 8 to go. Having already done 16 8 was easy, it must be. Getting slower every lap but by this point I know I would finish. Spin down the hill grind back up. On the final lap my legs were like jelly but were fired by the adrenalin and knowledge that this was the last one. In the final sprint to the end I even managed a skid up to the line.

I can safely say that the whole thing was horrible and that 3 hours in the pain cave is a long time. I am so pleased to have done it though, and so pleased that other did it to.
What followed was standard drunkenness until the early hours.

I would like to say big thank yous to Alby for the prizes (that was awesome, cheers dude). Noel for getting up early to pick them up from Stratford as well as time keeping. Sarah for timekeeping organizing and steeling the clipboards (she will post the official times up later). Leo and Ben to photography, Duncan for filming. Rob for the squash. Jeff for the BBQ and the flask for accommodating us and putting up with our general mess. Thanks to all the others who cheered, helped out, baked, drank and partied. Was good to catch glimpses of Skully and family, John Mack and nipper and Dale with tinny shorts (that wasn’t a good glimpse to catch). Also, thanks to all the riders who smashed themselves up a hill more times than they should have done. A massive effort from every rider. Well done all, some true heroics happened in Highgate on Saturday.

So, awesome day. Thanks a lot and well done all. Photos, video and times will be posted at some point I am sure.

Hmm, I mentioned to Arvy on the way home that next year, we should preface it with 24 laps of Regents Park, just to get the full, grand tour stage experience.

Anyone?

Fuck off.

What great day! I didn’t even ride, but still feel like I’m recovering.

Slightly overdue, but here are the results. (Apologies that I don’t know everyone’s forum name). Also – @6pt – no finishing time was recorded for you. Do you have the final time (including stops) on your Garmin?

24 laps completed:

Texas (fixed) – 2:38
FridayMarch26th (geared) – 2:39
6pt (geared) - *2:43 (est)*
Jamie (geared) – 2:46
Jung (geared) – 2:57
Polky (geared) – 2:58
Mikey5000 (geared) – 3:03
PGM (fixed) – 3:11
Sasmon (fixed) – 3:18
Alex (geared) – 3:22
Colin (geared) – 3:24
BMMF (fixed) – 3:35
macca81 (fixed) – 3:45
Arvy (fixed) – 4:08

Special mentions:

Stix & Edmundro (tandem) – 16 laps
middleofnowhere (fixed) – 16 laps
velo libre (fixed) – 6 laps
Brun (fixed) – 6 laps
Izgard (fixed) - 3 laps
Dropout (fixed) – 1 lap (to deliver a bacon roll)

I am still in awe of everyone who managed more than one lap of this. Especially Will who would’ve been even faster without two punctures and change of bikes. Also Simon and Joe who made incredible time despite a wheel change/ late start respectively. Well done to Andy and Dan who were deeper in the pain cave than anyone else but still emerged victorious. Ed and Matt who both managed nonchalant fags as they were going round, and to Vicky for being the only woman to take on the challenge with such strength and humour.

As for Scarlett, I felt terrible as you set off on your 25th lap, thinking you hadn’t heard my earlier shout of “One more to go!” We all agreed not to tell you in case you were angry at having done too many, and then you put in an additional 15!!!

Hmm, I mentioned to Arvy on the way home that next year, we should preface it with 24 laps of Regents Park, just to get the full, grand tour stage experience.

Anyone?

Inner or outer circle? Either way, I'm in.
@sccarysneeze
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/39270389 my record of the day, with a large chunk of 'off pedalling elsewhere' missing from the middle. With stops, I'm definitely closer to JAMIE than friday.

Thats some quick laps there.

Fixed next time? ;)