Back on the Bike

After a brief focus on triathlon for the last two events, my bike is going to get hammered over the next few weeks prior to l’etape. I have a 130Km ride planned on Saturday with some buddies and then the Dave Lloyd Challenge next Sunday which entails 177Km with 3500metres of climbing (almost exactly the same as l’etape). The profile of the Dave Lloyd is different to l’etape but with the same amount of climbing it will be a good indicator of what to expect in France.

I have acquired and now swapped over a 12-27 Cassette onto my race bike. This will give me more room on the climbs and I shall try it out on the Surrey Hills on Saturday. If that doesn’t work out well then I am in trouble!


The Dauphine Libere bike race is taking place this year. I like this race as it was our local race when we lived in Grenoble and I will never forget seeing Miguel Indurain in Grenoble after the finish one year. He had huge thighs and tiny arms, I guess the ideal physiology for a cyclist. Not a shape I have aspirations to have, so I guess a life as a top level cyclist is not coming. The Dauphine Libere shall climb the Mt Ventoux tomorrow so I have Eurosport set to record and will watch the whole climb as done by the pros. I wonder if the gradient will show up on the TV, it rarely does when I watch Skiing.

Not Unhappy ;-|

The Hampshire Hilly Hundred is now completed with a silver award in my back pocket, a cyclist sun tan on arms and legs and a very sore “saddle” to show for it. This Sportive is a beautiful ride in the Hampshire countryside with only around 1 mile on what you would call a major road. The rest is on country lanes and minor roads showing off wonderfully what England can be like on a sunny day. I was pretty happy with the ride even if I was saving a little for the coming birthday weekend which will be celebrated with a Triathlon and a 10Km road race. We departed in a group of eight with me promising my wife I would look after her boss as he had not ridden more than 60 miles before. It became clear that he would have struggled to maintain our starting pace for the whole hundred so I dropped back to ride with him. We subsequently rode together up hill and down dale for just over 6 hours at an average speed of 26Kmh which is good considering I held the front for just under 6 hours. My original plan was to smack the hills as training for l’etape but clearly my definition of “smack” needs reviewing as I was often passed by faster climbers whilst struggling to turn the pedals in 1st gear, a gear I now know well.
I know it sounds naive but they really don’t call it the Hilly Hundred for nothing. I have the impression that every bend disguised another climb and the number of hills with false brows was getting tiresome towards the end. A total of 2400m climbing in 160Km is actually comparable to the first 160Km of l’etape which I think is 1900m followed by the 1600m climb up “the Giant of Provence”. There was one 15% climb which started at mile 68, that was the only real “grin and bear it” climb and it wasn’t too long but the thought of doing something close to that for 22km fills me with dread.

There is plenty of food for thought prior to l’etape, not least a need to do more hills and build up the leg strength. I shall also be reviewing my gear ratios this week, I spent far too long in 1st gear for my liking and am too proud to get a Triple which leaves me with the option of changing the rear cassette to give me some room. I will struggle to ride at this pace for 150Km and then climb Ventoux so I will need to review that as well. I noticed that I was comfortable riding at a heart rate of 145bpm for the first half of the ride but then the legs got tired and I struggled to raise my HR above 135bpm for the remainder, I actually averaged 137bpm (10bpm lower than when I did the Gorrick Enduro). I guess that is down to either a lack of fitness or poor nutrition on the ride. I shall do some desk based research and find out.

A Heavy Weekend

I had my longest ride to date this weekend. Actually it was a heavy weekend all round: Some friends announced their engagement which entailed a party at “The Old House” which was great, the food was scrumptious and the night was long. That was followed by a 16Km easy run in the morning and a game of rugby in the afternoon. We had a group of 8 friends for dinner Saturday night which ended up being late as well and then I did my 90Km ride on Sunday. The weather was great for the first weekend this year so I set out in with high hopes. It turned out to be very windy and it appeared to be head on the whole way round; I know this isn’t the case but it always feels that way doesn’t it! It was so blustery I almost lost the front of the bike a few times. After 75Km it started raining and hailing and I was soaked through to the skin, even my nice new waterproof socks couldn’t cope with the heavy weather. I tucked my head down and kept going even though I was close to calling it a day, I was adamant I was going to break 80Km or 50miles.

I took out my new Planet X for the first time and I now know what it is like to ride a compact up some of the hills I will face on L’Etape; I ascended the 5% gradient of “Farleigh Hill” but I still need to see whether I can get up a 10% hill on the compact.

“Farleigh Hill” was a "breeze" but I struggled to get a good speed up it and also failed to raise my heart rate above 140 bpm which is not normal for me; I regularly climb at about 160 bpm so I decided to turn around and do it again straight away, alas with the same result. At the end of the ride my average heart rate was 129 bpm which is also low, it usually stays between 135 and 140bpm on a Zone 2 ride, my average speed was also a good 3Km/h slower than my normal Zone 2 ride pace. I had a quick dig around the inter-web and I may be fatigued or over-trained. On Saturday I had noticed that my heart rate took hours to drop to its normal resting level after rugby so I think I am just tired after 2 heavy training weeks after my ski break. I shall plan a very quiet taper week prior to the Half Marathon on Sunday.

Training Done: Run:3x4' intervals; Run: 90' Z2; Rugby (got spanked); Bike: 3.5 hours Z1/Z2; Bikram Yoga!

Compact vs. Triple?

I am still desperate to get my new road bike out, I have had it since the beginning of December and we have had rain and snow ever since so I have only ridden it once. It is a full carbon bike from Planet-X who appear to be highly rated, I bought the bike direct from the manufacturer through a special sale they had; the sale price compared to competitive bikes was too good an opportunity to miss.

The gears are set up differently to my old bike; it is a “compact” as opposed to a “triple”. A compact has two chain-rings at the front as opposed to three on my triple which means that the range from top gear to bottom gear is not as great. The result is that the top speed is slower and the smaller gear for going uphill is not as small as my triple. This will take some getting used to and I need to know if I can actually get up Mt Ventoux on a compact, I will train on it for a while and see. I think there is an option to change the rear gears (or cassette) to make it easier to get uphill; I shall probably explore that route depending upon how my training goes.