2011-07-16/17 Sat/Sun - Dunwich Dynamo DD19

how are you yasi? last we saw you was just after the feed stop and you looked a bit tired. hope you got to the beach ok with no dramas.

Or middle it ...
67 is a good compromise
Worked fine for me. Could handle the down hills pumping front brake to save legs

I normally ride 67 but swapped to 70 for this ride to save my joints a bit from constant quick spinning. I handled all the hills fine, after I bonked and was hallucinating flashing lights there was one small hill that I tried to get out the saddle for but couldn't physically do it. But some Mule bars later I was fine again, didn't have to walk up any of them. Hitting 33mph on a downhill I was glad not to have a lower gearing, thought my legs were going to spin off.
Me+Onelesscardigan+Mothergirl+Chainbreaker+Oldskoolracer had a good group going from about 4am. You guys and Fotochap made the ride for me, thanks for the awesome company.
And I forgot to say earlier, proper to TomK&E for only just recovering from a broken ankle, then faceplanting last week after a handlebar fail and still coming along and with proper nice home made beef jerky.

I still can't get over the fact I actually did it. If anything I probably took too much stuff but ill know for next year. My knees don't feel too bad actually ill rest for most of this week then get another 70 in at the weekend.

big props to those that rode back. (it helped us as we actually accidentally overbooked the coach, good accountant arent i?)

Reading all of the reports has been wonderful, but what happened here? This was the one thing I kept banging on about... don't commit to more than you can deliver. Oh well, really glad everyone got back safely, that it appears to be incident free, and I just want to say an enormous:

THANK YOU

To Katie and jaitch for taking on the weeks and weeks of planning and the early morning arrival mayhem that is organising an LFGSS coach. Chapeau, to the two of you, great work.

how are you yasi? last we saw you was just after the feed stop and you looked a bit tired. hope you got to the beach ok with no dramas.

Hello! I was very tired we had to sort out a puncture before the food stop and my tyre decided not to want to come off so a lot of standing around in the cold, but thankfully we stopped next to a couple of guys that had better levers and he managed to get the tyre on :) and i didnt get another one :).

we made it, had lots of snack breaks/ smoke breaks, took in the scenery, i had a beautiful night, there were some amazing stretches that seemed to last for ever at the just strigaht flat roads in the sunrise with a few down hills on the way. lots of bananas and i discovered the tracker bar.

Paul with his feet in the sea x with his other beer he drank his victory beer in the coach queue

Just want to say thank you to the girl on the pink Mercian and guy on the brakeless Fort (I think your name was Paul) for leading the A12 peloton back to Ipswich. Was great fun!

It was that sense of camaraderie between complete strangers that epitomised the ride for me. Another rider and I punctured on some potholes and people were all too quick to offer assistance and lights etc.

That was fun. I did it fixed, which would normally have been fine, but somewhere just before Great Dunmow (i.e. not that far in at all) my left leg, which I'd hurt overdoing it in windy remote Essex on Monday (was hobbling on Tuesday) decided it was not happy. I'd gone into the whole thing tired and not really feeling all that too, so that was definitely the hardest ride I've ever done to be honest. Good for finding out how well I can cope with riding under adversity I suppose...

I was riding with Onelesscardigan, spybot, mothergirl et al until about 3 ish (not sure, time perception screwed) then just found a spurt of (albeit painful) speed and went flat out in the drops until roughly the 100 mile point, where I bumped into fussballclub, laner and benjam and stopped for a little rest and some jelly babies. The next 10 miles were ok, sort of, the last ten were painful and my body was telling me to give in, so I kept stopping and stretching my leg before moving off at a painfully slow pace, again. The good news is it's definitely just an overstretched leg, not my knees, which are fine as ever :)

I really wanted to ride back, but what with that and starting a new job tomorrow no way it was going to happen. Definitely next year!

Massive thanks to Katie and Jatich for organising the coach and truck back, it was so fast and efficient, great to be getting away before everyone else and only five minutes or so to wait for the bikes. I was home by 2.

Who won? Well nobody, obviously. But my votes go to Leo for the Boris bike riding and spybot for riding fixed 'n' back. Both really impressive and HTFU defining :)

What a fine event. My first DD and definitely to be repeated. Left London Fields about 8.15 and arrived at the Dunwich at 5.30am. Tibbs was drinking at Pub on the Park so I ordered one and then realised in my haste I had forgotten to put on my shorts over my tights so raced back home!! I ate shed loads on the ride; hard boiled eggs, sugary nut bar things, a gel (over-rated), soup, bacon buttie more bread and the Guiness at 11pm in Essex was great (iron for strength).

HI's;

-The excellent weather; moonlight and tailwinds.
-The bacon sarnie stall with free tea 20miles from the beach. Did I dream it?
-The swim at 11am followed by a bit of sunshine

• The friendly strangers and friends. Especially a chap called Tom who noticed my back light was out and offered me his reserve but then I found a spare. It is quite necessary to have some kind of back light and a goodish front one. The glo-sticks were cool though and helped me realise I was on the right track Hansel and Gretel style a few times.
  
• The man who signalled the huge crater in Epping which nearly swallowed my wheel as they have in the past.
  -Bell man
  -Randoms cheering us on TDF style
  
• Suffolk for looking lush at 4am
  
• The roads/route for being well planned and smoooth. The massive descent at about 90miles was scary fun
  
• My body and my De Rosa working in relative harmony the whole way.
  
• 'Summer Dream' ales at 7am http://www.green-jack.com/summer-dream-strikes-gold-at-peterborough
  
• My ipod. It felt like being at a proper rave up round 3am what with all the twinkling lights, sugar rush and dancing on the pedals to some beatz.
  -Getting the train back for free with the lovely Ally and Helen and their friend who's name eludes me.
  Great!!!!
  
  

Los;

-Essex boyos emptying a coca-cola can out their window on some of us.

• The last 5 miles were painful actually
  
• Some people are bad at riding in groups; esp. under-taking moves.
  
  

Thanks to everyone who made this event so wonderful. And well done riders. Happy resting!

I am going to be checking rides and races forum more from now on. Fun times!

Reading all of the reports has been wonderful, but what happened here? This was the one thing I kept banging on about... don't commit to more than you can deliver.
To Katie and jaitch for taking on the weeks and weeks of planning and the early morning arrival mayhem that is organising an LFGSS coach. Chapeau, to the two of you, great work.

ha it wasnt overbooked until we started the ride...then it got very difficult to keep track of who had actually started from out list, who had cried off with flu, how many spaces we actually had free and the number of people both me and katie thought we could squeeze on. that and the coach company sent a 50 seater not a 51. that nearly caught us out.

actually marshalling tired forumengers onto the coach was the best fun. especially katie-coos note in the door. "this is not a southern cyclists coach."

tired bedraggled cyclist and his girlfriend: is this the coach to london?
Me: yep
TBCAHG: can we get on?
me: are you elite?
TBCAHG: i dont feel it right now
me:>>>>>>>>>>>>

oh and the person organising the southwark cyclists coaches trying to dissuade us from running a coach next year as they changed the departure time at the last minute to 11am this year and next year will be running rolling coaches. one an hour from 10am. just means that next year we need to leave the beach at 9am...

are you elite?

New forum slogan?

why on earth should southwark not want lfgss to organise it's own coach? I don't know the politics of DD so maybe I wind it in, but...

unfortunately i cant take credit for that one. joelR gave me the inspiration for that one. he mentioned it once and it just had to be repeated at every opportunity.

oh and the person organising the southwark cyclists coaches trying to dissuade us from running a coach next year as they changed the departure time at the last minute to 11am this year and next year will be running rolling coaches. one an hour from 10am. just means that next year we need to leave the beach at 9am...

Erm, it's a public car park. How about they don't run one and leave it clear for us? ;)

I had a terrific time doing the DD, unforgettable, esp the moonlit countryside and the bike lights snaking their way through. Oh, and the swim at the end.

made a little timelapse of it too, inspired by stemy08 's one on youtube for 2009, hope it brings back memories:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjyqf6_timelapse-dunwich-dynamo-2011_sport

There was mayhem there earlier, surely its better if smaller groups like us can organise our own transport.

And once again thanks to jaitcg, KatieCoo and velocio for getting the kiln- coach sorted. Great work.

i was obviously brain dead after smithfields. i docked the bike, thinking i need to get to london bridge by tube?!? wtf was i thinking.

i walked to barbican to find it closed. thought 'hmm how do i get a bus from here to LB'. looked over the road and saw boris bike stand. undocked one rode over to london bridge.

tried to find a dock, couldn't (phone was dead) rode around southwark for about 20 mins when it absolutely started bucketing down. eventually was pointed to the direction of docks opposite borough market. walked over to LB and waited another 40 mins for a train...

getting home #fail

tl;dr: i was a zombie this afternoon.

why on earth should southwark not want lfgss to organise it's own coach? I don't know the politics of DD so maybe I wind it in, but...

no idea. he just kept mentioning it was a hell of a lot cheaper for him to get it done that it was for us and that we shouldnt have to subsidise it (which I agree. if we had done two coaches and one (slightly larger lorry) the forum would have covered its cost as I think we would have been justified in charging slightly more. ...when I told him that once we factor in that the rain and people riding back meaning we were able to do a bunch of resales and the amount subsidised was much less. David/Katie-coo ill pm you with details of resales.

plus i told the driver of your coach to get the heating right up so that we could get a photo of everyone passed out on the coach. it could be a forum tradition or something. i take it the photo didnt happen...

plus as well he was a really nice chap. not sure if thats relevent but i detected no malice or confrontation, more sadness/frustration that to get ourselves home it was easier to organise it ourselves than use their service. which they evidently worked damned hard to provide. I never knew Barry Mason but I got the sense from the organiser/volunteers i did manage to speak to that there were a lot of people out there last night raising a glass to Barry and doing it for him last night.

Had such a good time, Last 7 miles were the hardest

Highlights
-Bacon sarnie tent with free tea and coffee (AMAZING)
-Hitting 42mph in the dark on a decent
-Dunking my feet in the sea after 6 1/2 hours riding
-Seeing so many hard out cyclists in one place having a great albeit painful experience

Will Def be back next year

Dunking my feet in the sea after 6 1/2 hours riding

Great time! Why didn't you go for the full immersion though?

^^^^Maybe the LFGSS coach is causing more Southwark punters to complain about their offering? It's interesting to hear they brought their own departure time forward and have ramped up the service for next year... healthy competition?

Anyway - I just stopped by to echo the hefty thanks offered to jaitch and Katie. You turned the whole experience into an absolute pleasure. If you could just turn up the coach heating a couple of notches for next year we can fry our own breakfasts at the back? ;)

Oh, and you asked us to check over our bikes after unloading? Well, imagine my disgust when I discovered that the half chewed banana crust I'd been cultivating on my top tube was coated in blanket fluff!

This is wholly unacceptable - I demand justice!

Great time! Why didn't you go for the full immersion though?

Feet were enough - next year maybe if I bring a towl!

Firstly, It's gonna be another wall of words I'm afraid. :[

The good...[mostly]
I was really looking forward to the DD this year, but it ended up being the hardest ride I've ever done and has left me a broken man. :[

I ended up leaving so much later than i wanted to after faffing around for ages at home trying to sort everything out for my dog sitter [thanks Nellai] and taking the dog out, and briefly talking to my kids on the phone to say I would call them when I got to London fields.

I eventually set off to the fields and as I approached Mare street It was swamped with hundreds of riders and I realised pretty much everyone had left. So I stopped at the side of the road to call my boys. I ended up being on the phone for half an hour as I watched everybody that I knew go sailing by. I thought it was about nine when I finally got off thephone, but as people who said they left at nine too had already sailed past half an hour earlier I'm guessing it was nine thirty when I got rolling.

I was determined to catch people up that I knew so I set off pretty fast. I passed Braker and a few forum Jerseys just before Epping, then caught up with Edsoble in Epping town centre. I was feeling ok at this stage so decided to stay at the pace I was at and continued to move past riders.
It was lovely finally catching up with JahTim who has such a relaxing and calm attitude that you can't help feeling happy. :]
I said my goodbyes and set off on my way at my own pace.
I continued passing riders and then heard a rumble of a Dulwich Paragon train about to overtake me, so I latched on behind them in Ninja style and stuck with them for about 5 miles just to move down the road a bit quicker and make up some time for my still intended return journey.

Things rolled along nicely until just before Sudbury when I suddenly began to feel really nauseous. I sat on the bridge in Sudbury for a while hoping it might go away, but it never did...for the rest of the whole damn ride.
I found myself on my own quite a lot past Sudbury.
Somehow I kept bumping into the Paragon train and would occasionally tag along...until they went the wrong way and missed a little kink in the road heading towards Monks Eliegh.
I was on my own again then for what felt like ages until I eventually caught up with a light. Didn't get this guys name but we stuck together for about ten miles, and were doing well until somehow we messed up and ended up in bloody Wickham market, where I knew I shouldn't be.
I was struggling for energy by now and told him to carry on while I stopped for a food break.
And I was back on my own again trying to get back on route...I eventually rejoined at Framlingham..right in front of the same Paragon guys. :]
However, they took a different route out of Framlingham so they were gone again.

Bit late now, but to cut a long outward story short...I finally arrived on my own at the beach at 4:3O and promptly ordered a full english which was so welcome, despite me still feeling like I was going to throw up. :[ I didn't recognise a single face anywhere.
I was then joined by Scoble half an hour later, which was a good time for fixed, then spotted Prav and Rosie a bit after that.
By this point I had decided there was no way on earth I was riding back this time as I felt so sick and was in a lot of pain from my shoulders and knees.

Rosie set off for home after a quick sandwich break, looking way fresher than I was feeling. :]

Then reality kicked In...I would have to sit around feeling like I was gonna throw up, getting cold for FIVE HOURS if I got on a coach.
Hmmm...I could be most of the way home by that point...Right?
Wrong! Very wrong!

So off I went on my merry way.

As I said, I apologise for the length of this potentially boring story...but I've never been good at abbreviating anything.
I'm gonna get something to eat before coming back with the bad and the ugly. :]

I must say though...I'm confused by some peoples time estimates, as people who left before me and got there after me seem to have a shorter total time? Hmm