-
^^ Fast and very entertaining.
-
^ A car and a couple of motorbikes, but they did nothing about the traffic. There was very little traffic, mostly just empty road. Also this road is new so there are actually no potholes for the entire 125km. There are a lot of rumble strips and speed bumps though! Oh and of course there are wandering cattle which made me a little nervous once or twice. But it's easily the best road in Kenya.
This race, the Savannah Classic, was last weekend. I raced another event this weekend, the "Cycloville Annual". Similar length but far far worse conditions, i.e. hugely cratered road surface and congested traffic. The route blasted straight through several small towns, offering their buffet of roaming drunks and stray dogs, rectangular-profiled speed bumps and cars doing U-turns at 1.5mph. I got forced off the road by a petrol tanker and nearly front-ended an articulated lorry. A full write up will come once I get some work off my plate tomorrow.
Cycling itself is really no biggie in Kenya - I ride a bike around Nairobi every day and honestly it's fine. Can be a bit hairy at points, but there's also this anarchic freedom in having effectively no traffic laws. You force your way around like all the cars do, and make your own luck. I wish I had a GoPro!
-
^ Great story. I've been to Nairobi. It's pretty hairy on the roads all right.
Keep up the good riding.
-
Agreed.
I didn't race, nor did I have an experience that I can write anything half as interesting about.
So I'll try to make this quick instead- went out with Brixton CC for the first time in ages- so many people these days!
Good fun, some lanes I'd not gone down before, a challenging climb that I'd not done also.
Pleasant company, no p_nct_r_s and no mechanicals- winner.
I split off toward the end and TT'ed in to get home for 1, ~52 miles in the bag, showered and looking at the window with a coffee in my hand as the rain started coming down.
-
Woke up at silly o'clock yesterday morning, so decided to get up and head out... Gosh it was chilly.... time to get the tights back out.
Headed out toward Ewell and Epsom, up to Epsom downs around the race course, onto Tadworth then back onto the main route to Reigate...Sheep in dewey fields the sun rising casting a long warm glow over the smoky landscape... passed rivers and woods....onto Chaldon and ifield then stopped for a cake break at 25 miles around Crawley, decision time... onward to Brighton or head back ?..... headed back, still in shell jacket with cold tootsies.... thinking about a hot bubble bath... so onward and up that lovely Reigate f***ing hill.....
Just started to rain on the final 4-5 miles.....home.... 3 hours rolling some hills done and a nice hot bath with tea and more cake and then a second breakfast :) -
^ That's your tactic, huh?
In this weekend's race (write-up soon) I managed to simply point to the ground in front of a rider and he let me in!
My mate (came 1st mzungu in both races) suggested the following: veer into the line until your bars overlap in front of another rider's and then slow a little so they are forced to slow with you, opening a gap in front of them.
I suppose that you could substitute "your bars" for "your arm/elbow"? Are there rules against barging arm-first into a paceline?
-
Went out on the mountainbike yesterday. No new routes but I rode them the opposite direction to the way I've always ridden them so it was almost like riding a brand new trail. Some stuff you don't realise the gradient until you ride it the other way.
The weather turned out nice and after the recent dry weather it soaked away the rain earlier on in the day.
-
LadySwine and I rode to Windsor yesterday to talk matters of sensitive intelligence with the Queen and balk at the tourist prices, which weren't as funny once we'd paid them ourselves for admittedly good scones in a regally named cream tea missing one constituent part - value. She takes her coffee complicated and I my tea black, which having learned from people far classier than myself is not to say one cannot enjoy a black tea served with milk. I don't understand this. In my simple world black tea is black, due to it containing no milk. Beyond that is a forensic analysis of ordering which turns my tea and mind cold.
Anyway, our ride coincided with a mass of others doing the same thing for charity. We did not know their plans beforehand and I assume the opposite also holds good, unless the sly dogs are snooping on me behind their props of cheery waves and clapped-out bicycles, but those bastards will never take me alive. They had chosen the same route as us too, which proved a help as although I've done this trip before (LadySwine is not only a forrin but also not much more than a (now converted) about-town-dallier, so I couldn't help but scoff on the train back when she referred to our little adventure as a 'tour', but they make them without ambition in Switzerland), we'd relied on taking a series of photos of our route on Google maps on her flashy phone. This kind of thinking's beyond me. There's some advanced creatures wandering this earth - more and more I'm reminded I'm not one of them. Lacking a GPS device I usually prefer to stare at a route online until my eyes see nothing more, then follow it by memory/luck and see how it all shakes down. Flicking through our photos for reference at several junctions while we remained aloof of the spies in our midst made me feel all twenty-first century, and I'm not sure I liked it.
What's beyond dispute is I unintentionally offended somebody in a way I could never have possibly imagined - I've got this down pat nowadays, but I'd trade it in an instant for a useful skill. The charity ride meant volunteers were signalling the way at various points, and naturally we were mistaken for participants on the occasions we'd merged with those entrants who rightly suspect I'm a national traitor. At a set of traffic lights stood a sole volunteer, offering encouragement and directions to everyone who passed. The better half and I came to a stop and humoured his talk while he assumed we were part of the charity ride. What didn't escape my attention was, although inescapably male, he was dressed as a woman. My conclusion - in the spirit of things he's in fancy dress. Good man. Accepting this as fact in my skewed mind I congratulated him, with sincerity, on his outfit. His face dropped and with sincerity to abolish mine, replied that he's a transvestite. I waited for a laugh from him that didn't come. He continued to tell me this is how he's chosen to live his life - I took a glance at the lights. Still red. Nothing for it than to wither away some more.
I looked at LadySwine for help. Wisely she refused my eye, much like I would have done. It's great how we support each other. I had belittled this man's gender struggles with an incidental remark, reducing his right to be who he likes how he pleases while the ignorant world for which I alone spoke views him as being in costume for reasons of parody. An awkward moment indeed. I apologised profusely which he took with good grace, then rode away several inches smaller once the lights had finally put me out of my misery. One day I'll learn to think before I speak. Apart from that it was great but I didn't quaff enough Hoegaarden for my liking once we arrived - if I did I'd still be there now.
-
I was going to post something rambling and lyrical about my weekend ride but, having read Swine's story above, I feel unable to say more than:
Rode from Hyde Park Corner to Southwold on Saturday. Three ferries on the way. Dazzled some turnstones, saw dead partidges, had three pints of Adnams on arriving, got the train home. Top day out.
-
Fairly sure this will prove to be a stupid question, but why couldn't you have joined the end of the line and got out of the wind that way without needing to shove anyone? I know the end isn't the ideal place to be, but presumably better than wind-beaten and lonely?
^ That's your tactic, huh?
In this weekend's race (write-up soon) I managed to simply point to the ground in front of a rider and he let me in!
My mate (came 1st mzungu in both races) suggested the following: veer into the line until your bars overlap in front of another rider's and then slow a little so they are forced to slow with you, opening a gap in front of them.
I suppose that you could substitute "your bars" for "your arm/elbow"? Are there rules against barging arm-first into a paceline?
-
Not a stupid question. Very good question. The problem is that the bunch went faster than me up a steady incline and I would struggle to cling on. This happened on every incline!
Here's the terrain, look at the rolling ridges. Look at them.
I did cling to the back during the first few but it became harder and harder, with me having to catch the bunch each time. So I attempted to move forward in the bunch during a decline so that some riders could overtake me on the next hill without me getting spat out the back. I tried this exactly once, and couldn't elbow my way into the line near the front, wind in face, lost speed, pushed hard to regain speed, didn't have the legs to cling onto the back.
Dammit
fussballclub
Lynchman
Ndeipi
Manwithbicycle
%~}
Nick-Nack
hippy
skinny
O'Shane
TheorySwine
Ludd
owl-
Post a reply
About
Tell us about your weekend ride
Posted by
I rode my first proper road race, Kenya's "Savannah Classic". 125km on a flat/rolling road, stretching from the Tanzanian border up towards Nairobi. 1200m ascent (ish).
Among the field of 55 riders were the best in Kenya. The field was STRONG including David Kinjah (to whom Froome owes his skillz) and his Safari Simbas pro team (green kit) plus the Safari Simbas youth team (red & white kit) and another team from Tanzania all wearing Google jerseys.
**Numbers!
**The lead six riders (including Kinjah) finished in 3:08:00, making their average 39.9kph [25.0mph]. I finished 29th with a time of 3:46:00, making my average 33.2kph [20.6mph], the fastest I have ever ridden for any real distance.
**Start
**Up at 6am after a night of repeated calls to prayer from the bazillion mosques, crappy hotel breakfast, 25 minute warm up, collected into a group and started rolling.
**First 20 km
**Poking clandestinely out the window of a 4x4, the flag was waved and the race began. The peleton cruised at 30kph for maybe 10km. It was easy to sit in and spin but we were packed very tight, shoulder to shoulder, which made me nervous as I tried not to wobble into anyone. At the top of the first hill (which was long and 4-6% like all the hills) the leaders stepped the pace up to 38-40kph and we shed half our riders. The next hill came at 20km and I found myself without a wheel to sit on and unable to force my way into a solid line of riders to my left. I sat in the wind as these machines drove themselves uphill until I was summarily dropped, spat out the back. Probably 30 riders were ahead of me, including only two expats.
**20 - 80 km
**Watching the lead group vanish, I thought "this was always going to happen, no worries, just form a new group". I quickly found a big strong Londoner named Paddy who was complaining about being short of breath, because the race is at altitudes of 1400-1700m and he's fresh from the UK. I offered him my wheel to recover, and then we worked together to catch another three Kenyan riders. These guys were in Kinjah's Safari Simbas youth team, aged like 15-18 years and were tiny, probably like 50-55kg. They were not very welcoming and attacked us repeatedly but couldn't drop us. To persuade them to work with us I shouted "TUNAHITAJI KUFANYA KAZI KWA MOJA"- (We need to work as one). We tried a messy rotating paceline before settling for a solid 2-2-2 formation, cruised like this for probably 60km and caught another teenager from Tanzania on the way. These cheeky young East Africans attacked us hefty Brits on every hill and then worked with us on the flats - it was a strange relationship. I also nearly caused a crash when descending with these riders. My wheel came into heavy contact with the wheel in front and the "zzzzzzzzip" of my tyre on his was a scary sound indeed. Must practise more bunch riding….
The sun was super strong and I'd forgotten to SPF up. Having never done this before, I managed to sort it without even losing the wheel in front which is possibly my most impressive act of the day.
**80 - 126 km (finish)
**The feed stops were hilarious as volunteers were holding out CUPS of water to passing riders. Not one rider today managed to grab a cup without the water exploding uselessly into the air and/or the volunteer's face, so at the 80km mark we stopped fully at a feed stop to take on water & glucose. A shoe issue kept me at the stop for an extra 30 seconds and all four East African youth attacked, leaving only Paddy waiting for me. Us two Brits caught James the 15 year old Kenyan, but we had lost the stronger three. For the remaining 46km, James raced negatively but cleverly, attacking us Brits on the hills and just sitting on our wheels on the flat. He was probably 50kg to my 73kg and Paddy's 90kg (!). Paddy was powerful on the flat and did some heroic 40kph turns on the front. I noticed we were 1.5km from the finish and I tried to do a Cancellara style in-the-saddle solo effort, but simply ended up leading out Paddy & James for their sprint and found myself last in the trio thinking "that didn't go as planned". To be honest I had very little juice left so wasn't too upset with myself. Paddy won the sprint, making him 3rd mzungu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mzungu and me 4th.
There was confusion over the race winner because there was no sign saying "finish 2km ahead" and the front six riders crossed the finishing line in a very tight messy bunch. So, somewhat arbitrarily, Kinjah came 3rd behind two other teammates. That 17 year old Peter Gathere was in the finishing bunch with these 25-45 year old elites is just astounding. If he gets the right support he'll be a rider to watch in the coming years, like a black Froome? Who knows.
**TL:DR
**I raced with a load of Kenyans and expats including some pros. I went fast and loved it. Also it appears I can't sprint. Plastic cups are not effective vectors for supplying water to riders travelling above 20mph.
Video
. <--- CLICK FOR VIDEO
Taken during the first few kilometres before the pro team (in green kit) turned on the pain. I'm at the very back, on the left. Use the HD button for better viewing.
**CLICK FOR VIDEO --> . **